Taos, New Mexico
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1995. It stands in the Taos census division. It lies in ZIP code area 87571. It stands on Rio Lucero. The Survey maps it on the Taos quadrangle. 6,474 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,969 feet above sea level.
Research this city
On record in Taos
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 12 of 19 shown
Ernest L. Blumenschein HouseNational Historic Landmark · listed 1966
Kit Carson HouseNational Historic Landmark · listed 1966
Mabel Dodge Luhan HouseNational Historic Landmark · listed 1978
Taos PuebloNational Historic Landmark · listed 1966
Bernard J. Beimer Houselisted 2006
Gov. Charles Bent Houselisted 1978
Couse, Eanger Irving, House and Studio-Sharp, Joseph Henry, Studioslisted 2005
Nicholai Fechin Houselisted 1979
Leon Gaspard Houselisted 1979
Harwood Foundationlisted 1976
E. Martin Hennings House and Studio Historic Districtlisted 1990
La Loma Plaza Historic Districtlisted 1982
Surveyed buildings and structures 7 records
- Adair House, Pueblo Street, Taosfederal building survey, 2 photographs
- Chapel of Padre Antonio Jose Martinez, Garden of Irving Couse, Taosfederal building survey, 2 photographs
- Don Antonio Jose Valdez House, Santa Fe & Pueblo Roads vicinity, Taosfederal building survey, 4 photographs
- Kit Carson House, Kit Carson Avenue, Taosfederal building survey, 2 photographs
- La Capilla de Nuestra Senora de Dolores, Ranchos de Taosfederal building survey, 1 photograph
- Ralph Meyers House (Corbels), Taosfederal building survey, 1 photograph
- Santiago Romero House, Taosfederal building survey, 3 photographs
Population over time
2 figuresTaos grew from 5,716 to 6,474 between 2010 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 5,716 | |
| 2020 | 6,474 | +758 (+13%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 11 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
- 1964 USGS Taos quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1983 USGS Taos quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1995 USGS Taos quadrangle1:24000
Photographs
8 of 15 photographs shown, 1939 to 1943Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.
Collier, John, Jr, 1943. Library of Congress
Collier, John, Jr, 1943. Library of Congress
Collier, John, Jr, 1943. Library of Congress
Collier, John, Jr, 1943. Library of Congress
Collier, John, Jr, 1943. Library of Congress
Lee, Russell, 1939. Library of Congress
Lee, Russell, 1939. Library of Congress
Collier, John, Jr, 1943. Library of Congress
Every photograph of Taos County
Fires near this place
164 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 164 fires within 5 miles of Taos between 1992 and 2020, burning about 6,035 acres in total. 19 started naturally. 9 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 | 54 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 34 |
| Natural | 19 |
| Fireworks | 13 |
| Smoking | 12 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 10 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 9 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 9 |
| Other causes | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 September 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Carson National Forest | TAOS CANYON |
| 24 September 2001 | Natural | under an acre | Northern Pueblos Agency | SAN JI |
| 1 September 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Northern Pueblos Agency | BOX CAR |
| 9 August 1996 | Natural | under an acre | Northern Pueblos Agency | JUNIOR |
| 7 August 2013 | Natural | under an acre | Northern Pueblos Agency | PUCK |
| 7 August 1995 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 2.5 acres | Northern Pueblos Agency | GREEN |
| 7 August 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Northern Pueblos Agency | SHACK |
| 6 August 2012 | Natural | under an acre | Northern Pueblos Agency | LUCY |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
8 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Taos: 8 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Materials Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Materials Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Materials Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Materials Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Materials Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Materials Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Materials Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Materials Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
8 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Taos in 8 storm reports between 1997 and 2021: 4 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 cold/wind chill. The reports record 1 death. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 1997 | Cold/Wind Chill | Taos | 1 killed | A 62 year old Taos woman was found dead in the side yard of her home. The death appeared to be an accidental fall and exposure to subzero temperatures. |
| December 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Taos | $5,000,000 | Snow squall. An intense line of thunderstorms with rain and snow moved quickly through Taos County early in the morning. An AWOS station in Taos measured a peak wind gust of 62 mph, but damage estimates within the city and surrounding areas indicate wind speeds of 80 to 100 mph as these high winds caused extensive damage. These thunderstorms produced a 2.9 mile long swath of damage from Blueberry Hill Road to El Prado oriented in an east-northeast direction. Six to seven homes sustained roof damage while one single wide mobile home was moved off its foundation. Numerous trees were snapped at the base with other large limbs downed, and at least two power poles were snapped at their bases. Two homes sustained significant roof damage with the aluminum roofing peeled completely off the homes. On a two story home, three-quarters of its roof was missing with part of its second story destroyed. At another home, a trampoline was found fifty feet in the air stuck in a tree. A radio tower was also downed which resulted in a power outage to the northern half of the city. Several schools in the area cancelled classes for the day while government offices were also closed. Taos County declared a State of Emergency, and COVID-19 vaccination sites were temporarily transformed into shelters for displaced people. Damages are a rough estimate. |
| July 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Taos | $30,000 | High winds ripped away a portion of the roof from the Hacienda Inn. No injuries were reported. The area of the hotel damaged had been closed for months. |
| June 2015 | Hail | Taos | - | Trained spotter reported penny size hail. |
| June 2008 | Hail | Taos | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Taos | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Taos | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Taos | - | no account filed |
Newspapers printed here
3,655 digitised pages3 papers published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 638 issues, 3,655 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 |
|---|---|
| La Revista De Taos and the Taos Valley News | 190? to 1905 |
| La Revista De Taos | 1905 to 1922 |
| La Revista De Taos and the Taos Cresset | 1905 |
What the paper printed
363 wordsFront pages of the local paper, read from the Library of Congress scans: 2 issues all from 1905, 363 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1905-03-11 | La Revista De Taos and the Taos Cresset | 133 words |
| 1905-05-13 | La Revista De Taos and the Taos Cresset | 230 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cañon | 1.2 miles | 11 | |
| Ranchito | 1.3 miles | 11 | |
| El Prado | 1.7 miles | 11 | |
| Lower Ranchito | 2.0 miles | 11 | |
| Taos Pueblo | 2.6 miles | 11 | |
| Los Cordovas | 3.7 miles | 9 | |
| Ranchos de Taos | 3.9 miles | 10 | |
| Llano Quemado | 4.5 miles | 10 |
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 Taos | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q876315 | 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 911545. 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.




