Placitas, New Mexico

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1995. It stands in the Truth or Consequences West census division. It lies in ZIP code area 87939. It lies in Placitas Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Monticello quadrangle. It stands 5,204 feet above sea level.

Placitas within Sierra County

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 11 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1954 USGS Tucson Spring quadrangle1:250000
1954 USGS Tularosa quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1958 USGS Tularosa quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1961 USGS Monticello quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1979 USGS Truth or Consequences quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
1995 USGS Monticello quadrangle1:24000

Fires near this place

4 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Placitas between 2000 and 2011, burning about 240 acres in total. 4 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Natural	4

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
28 July 2000	Natural	20 acres	New Mexico State Forestry Division	LANGNER
27 July 2011	Natural	60 acres	New Mexico State Forestry Division	MONTICELLO 2
7 June 2000	Natural	10 acres	New Mexico State Forestry Division	COW CHIP
1 June 2002	Natural	150 acres	New Mexico State Forestry Division	WINDMILL

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Sierra County

Mines and quarries near this place

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Placitas: 4 occurrences. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Tin, Silver, Gold, Copper, Uranium, Fluorine-Fluorite, Uranium. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Cuchillo Tin Deposits	Tin	Occurrence	Cassiterite
Terry Prospect	Uranium	Occurrence
Terry Prospect 1948	Uranium, Fluorine-Fluorite	Occurrence	1948
Venus No. 1	Silver, Gold, Copper	Occurrence	Argentite, Cerargyrite

Every working recorded in Sierra County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Monticello	1.7 miles	11
La Petra	3.9 miles	11
Cuchillo	10.5 miles	9
Chise	11.3 miles	10
Winston	11.5 miles	11
Chloride	13.2 miles	11
Rock Canyon	15.9 miles	14
Hot Springs Landing	16.6 miles	14

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Placitas	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q104868916	The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 909751. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.