Red River, New Mexico
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1995. It stands in the Questa census division. It lies in ZIP code area 87558. It stands on Mallette Creek. The Survey maps it on the Red River quadrangle. 542 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 8,671 feet above sea level.
Research this city
On record in Red River
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 7 records
Red River Schoolhouselisted 1984- Black Copper Mine and Stamp Milllisted 2000
- Orin Mallette Cabinlisted 1984
- Sylvester M. Mallette Cabinlisted 1984
- Melson-Oldham Cabinlisted 1984
- Pierce-Fuller Houselisted 1984
- Brigham J. Young Houselisted 1984
Population over time
3 figuresRed River grew from 484 to 542 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 | 484 | |
| 2010 | 477 | -7 (-1%) |
| 2020 | 542 | +65 (+14%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 10 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.
- 1954 USGS Raton quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Raton quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1963 USGS Red River quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1982 USGS Wheeler Peak quadrangle1:100000
- 1995 USGS Red River quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
59 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 59 fires within 5 miles of Red River between 1992 and 2020, burning about 391 acres in total. 10 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 40 |
| Natural | 10 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Carson National Forest | DOG ACF |
| 7 September 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Carson National Forest | MIDNIGHT AFC |
| 20 September 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 5.0 acres | Carson National Forest | TRAIL CANYON |
| 19 September 2018 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Carson National Forest | VIGAS |
| 14 September 1992 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Carson National Forest | not named |
| 5 August 2019 | Natural | under an acre | Cimarron District | 20-20310163X |
| 5 August 2005 | Natural | under an acre | Carson National Forest | NORTHWEST |
| 19 August 2001 | Natural | under an acre | New Mexico State Forestry Division | WILDOAK |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 78 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 78 workings within 5 miles of Red River: 40 prospects, 29 past producers, 4 occurrences, 3 producers. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Gold, Silver, Molybdenum, Silver, Gold. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ajax Tunnel Prospect | Silver, Gold, Copper, Lead | Prospect | ||
| Bitter Creek Group | Uranium | Prospect | ||
| Copper King Mine | Molybdenum, Copper, Silver | Past Producer | 1867, 1955 | |
| Dyke Tunnel Prospect | Molybdenum, Gold, Copper | Prospect | ||
| Enderman Prospect | Silver, Molybdenum | Prospect | ||
| Esther Prospect | Lead, Copper | Prospect | ||
| Free Gold and Emerald Claims | Gold, Copper, Silver | Past Producer | 1895 | |
| Golden Goose | Gold, Calcium | Prospect | ||
| Granite | Copper, Molybdenum | Past Producer | ||
| Hornet Group | Zinc, Lead, Manganese | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
9 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Red River in 9 storm reports between 1999 and 2025: 5 flash flood, 2 hail, 1 lightning, 1 debris flow. The reports record 1 injury. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 1999 | Lightning | Red River | 1 hurt | A 40 year North Carolina man hiking on Wheeler Peak fell 100 feet after being struck by lightning. |
| July 2025 | Debris Flow | Red River | $50,000 | Monsoon rains resulted in a mudslide along NM Highway 38 at mile marker 9 approximately 3 miles west of Red River. Both lanes were closed with no estimated time of return to service. Rainfall over a period of time this summer resulting in a gradual loosening of the hillside is the likely culprit of this mudslide. Damage cost is an estimate of cleanup. |
| July 2015 | Flash Flood | Red River | $25,000 | Heavy rain caused a mudslide along NM 38, causing it to close for 2 hours. The rain also caused a rockslide to close all but one lane of County Road 578. |
| July 2015 | Flash Flood | Red River | $5,000 | Fire marshal reported a tremendous sudden burst of torrential rainfall. A fast flowing mudslide surged over highway 38 between mile markers 8 and 9. A video of the event was posted to FB. |
| May 2021 | Hail | Red River | - | A member of the public in Red River reported penny size hail from a strong thunderstorm. |
| July 2018 | Flash Flood | Red River | - | NM-38 closed due to mud slide over the roadway. |
| August 2018 | Hail | Red River | - | Hail up to the size of quarters at Bobcat Pass. |
| August 2017 | Flash Flood | Red River | - | A mudslide closed state road 38 two miles west of Red River. |
| July 2017 | Flash Flood | Red River | - | Large mudslide over state highway 138 at mile marker 9. Large boulders covered the highway. Road closed for nearly four hours. |
Newspapers printed here
566 digitised pages1 paper published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 122 issues, 566 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
| Newspaper | Published |
|---|---|
| Red River Prospector | 1900 to 190? |
What the paper printed
4,458 wordsFront pages of the local paper, read from the Library of Congress scans: 4 issues all from 1901, 4,458 words in total. Each is reproduced on its own page, exactly as the recogniser returned it.
These pages read less well than anything else here, and the number is worth stating: about three words in four come through cleanly, against nine in ten for the building records. An 1896 broadsheet sets eight-point type in seven columns on microfilm, which is the hardest thing in this archive to read by machine. We tested our own recognisers against the Library's and they were not better, so the Library's text is what appears, with the wholly unreadable columns removed. Read it as a guide to what the paper covered, and follow the link to the scan before quoting anything.
| Issue | Paper | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1901-04-25 | Red River Prospector | 1,989 words |
| 1901-05-30 | Red River Prospector | 601 words |
| 1901-07-25 | Red River Prospector | 851 words |
| 1901-12-26 | Red River Prospector | 1,017 words |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moly | 4.7 miles | 10 | |
| Midnight (historical) | 4.8 miles | 10 | |
| Anchor (historical) | 5.2 miles | 10 | |
| La Belle (historical) | 6.7 miles | 10 | |
| Taos Ski Valley | 8.1 miles | 10 | |
| Twining | 8.2 miles | 10 | |
| Questa | 10.0 miles | 9 | |
| El Rito | 10.7 miles | 9 |
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 Red River | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1428577 | 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 910074. 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.




