Ponderosa, New Mexico
20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1890 and the latest in 1983. It stands in the Santo Domingo-San Felipe census division. It lies in ZIP code area 87044. The Survey maps it on the Ponderosa quadrangle. 379 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,010 feet above sea level.
Population over time
3 figuresPonderosa fell from 383 to 379 between 2000 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 383 | |
| 2010 | 387 | +4 (+1%) |
| 2020 | 379 | -8 (-2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 20 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1890 USGS Jemes quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1892 USGS Jemes quadrangle1:125000
- 1892 USGS Jemez quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1943 USGS Jemez quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1952 USGS Jemez quadrangle1:62500
- 1958 USGS Albuquerque quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Albuquerque quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Albuquerque quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1970 USGS Ponderosa quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1978 USGS Los Alamos quadrangle1:100000
- 1983 USGS Albuquerque quadrangle1:250000
Fires near this place
122 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 122 fires within 5 miles of Ponderosa between 1992 and 2020, burning about 148 acres in total. 32 started naturally. 6 were 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 40 |
| Natural | 32 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 27 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 6 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 1994 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Santa Fe National Forest | not named |
| 7 September 1997 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Santa Fe National Forest | WATER |
| 5 September 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Santa Fe National Forest | PALIZA |
| 5 September 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Santa Fe National Forest | UNIT3 |
| 4 September 2017 | Natural | 12 acres | Santa Fe National Forest | BORREGO |
| 3 September 2007 | Natural | under an acre | Santa Fe National Forest | B-DAY |
| 1 September 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Southern Pueblos Agency | BASEBALL |
| 7 August 1999 | Natural | under an acre | Santa Fe National Forest | CAMILLE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
7 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Ponderosa: 4 unknowns, 3 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Pumice, Geothermal. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indian Springs | Geothermal | Unknown | ||
| Pit Number 57-53-S | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Pit Number 59-51-S | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Strip Mine | Pumice | Unknown | ||
| Strip Mines | Pumice | Unknown | ||
| Strip Mines | Pumice | Unknown | ||
| Walsh Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
8 since 2002Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ponderosa in 8 storm reports between 2002 and 2018: 3 hail, 3 flash flood, 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 funnel cloud. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2018 | Hail | Ponderosa | $500,000 | Hail up to the size of golf balls slammed the area around Jemez Springs and Jemez Pueblo. Flash flooding closed SR-4. Significant damage occurred to vehicles, windows, and crops. Damage amounts are estimated for dozens of vehicles. |
| September 2002 | Hail | Ponderosa | $30,000 | no account filed |
| July 2014 | Flash Flood | Ponderosa | $5,000 | Emergency manager indicated there was flooding in the area around Paliza however it was difficult to determine the extent of any additional damage due to the previous flash flood damage incurred from the event on July 8, 2014. Damage value is estimated for road repairs. |
| September 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ponderosa | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 2008 | Flash Flood | Ponderosa | $1,000 | no account filed |
| July 2016 | Hail | Ponderosa | - | Dime to nickel size hail near Ponderosa. |
| July 2014 | Flash Flood | Ponderosa | - | Several drainages flooded within the Paliza area of the Jemez Mountains. Water flooded Forest Road 266 before Forest Road 10 in two places. A fire engine working a wildfire in the area was trapped due to the above mentioned flooded roads, personnel had to wait out the storm. |
| September 2002 | Funnel Cloud | Ponderosa | - | no account filed |
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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cañon | 3.6 miles | 20 | |
| Jemez Pueblo | 4.4 miles | 21 | |
| Gilman | 6.2 miles | 18 | |
| Jemez Springs | 7.6 miles | 24 | |
| Deer Creek Landing | 8.1 miles | 18 | |
| San Ysidro | 8.6 miles | 17 | |
| Zia Pueblo | 10.9 miles | 21 | |
| Sierra de los Pinos | 11.2 miles | 25 |
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 Ponderosa | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2099519 | 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 918293. 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.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.










