Tucumcari, New Mexico
6 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1930 and the latest in 1967. It stands in the Tucumcari census division. It lies in ZIP code area 88401. The Survey maps it on the Tucumcari quadrangle. 5,278 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,091 feet above sea level.
Research this city
On record in Tucumcari
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 6 records
Blue Swallow Motellisted 1993
Cactus Motor Lodgelisted 2006
Arch Hurley Conservancy District Office Buildinglisted 1994
Metropolitan Park Bathhouse and Pool Historic Districtlisted 1996
Odeon Theaterlisted 2007- Arch and Ola Hurley Houselisted 2025
Surveyed buildings and structures 1 record
- Baca-Goodman House, Third & Aber Streets, Tucumcarifederal building survey, 13 photographs
Population over time
3 figuresTucumcari fell from 5,989 to 5,278 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 | 5,989 | |
| 2010 | 5,363 | -626 (-10%) |
| 2020 | 5,278 | -85 (-2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 6 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.
- 1930 USGS Tucumcari quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Tucumcari quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Tucumcari quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Tucumcari quadrangle1:24000
Photographs
1 photograph,Taken 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.
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress
Fires near this place
18 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 18 fires within 5 miles of Tucumcari between 1996 and 2020, burning about 2,804 acres in total. None 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 4 |
| Debris and open burning | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 July 2000 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | WALLY |
| 28 June 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Las Vegas District | R . EVETTS |
| 28 June 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | CAMINO |
| 18 June 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | New Mexico State Forestry Division | BRADLEY |
| 18 June 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | WRIGHT |
| 7 May 2020 | Debris and open burning | 1.2 acres | Las Vegas District | 20-40600481X |
| 31 May 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | New Mexico State Forestry Division | BUG |
| 23 May 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8.0 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | BLUE WATER |
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 Tucumcari: 5 unknowns, 1 producer, 1 occurrence. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Uranium. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strawn Prospect | Uranium | Occurrence | ||
| Unnamed Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Unnamed Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unnamed Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unnamed Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unnamed Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unnamed Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown |
Storms near this place
60 of 80 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Tucumcari in 80 storm reports between 1994 and 2023: 61 hail, 10 thunderstorm wind, 8 flash flood, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2023 | Flash Flood | Tucumcari | $500,000 | Multiple reports of flash flooding were received via social media during the evening of May 25, 2023. Streets throughout town were flooded, closed, or impassable with vehicles being stranded in some spots. Water was also reported to have reached up to business entrances. |
| July 2006 | Flash Flood | Tucumcari | $100,000 | no account filed |
| May 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tucumcari | $40,000 | High winds gusting 60-65 mph in Tucumcari ripped away parts of a motel roof. |
| August 2008 | Flash Flood | Tucumcari | $25,000 | Thunderstorms produced heavy rain which resulted in extensive street flooding in Tucumcari and Logan. Several vehicles became stuck in as much as three feet of water and at least one home was flooded. |
| May 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tucumcari | $20,000 | Severe thunderstorms in Quay County produced hail up to quarter size and strong winds which snapped some power poles in town. |
| May 2008 | Flash Flood | Tucumcari | $15,000 | State Road 104 was washed out just south of the Quay-San Miguel County line. |
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tucumcari | $5,000 | A cooperative observer reported several power poles downed and a small travel trailer overturned during a strong storm near Tucumcari. |
| June 2013 | Hail | Tucumcari | $3,000 | Baseball hail 4 miles north of Tucumcari. |
| June 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tucumcari | $2,000 | Strong winds resulted in roof damage to a house. |
| June 2013 | Hail | Tucumcari | $1,000 | Baseball hail 3 miles northwest of Tucumcari. |
| March 2021 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | One inch hail was reported with a severe thunderstorm near Tucumcari on the morning of March 13th. |
| July 2021 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | A COOP observer near Tucumcari reported nickel size hail from a strong thunderstorm tracking southwestward through the area. |
| May 2019 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | Quarter size hail reported in Tucumcari. |
| April 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tucumcari | - | A spotter reported a thunderstorm outflow wind gust up to 60 mph along with pea size hail and significant blowing dust. |
| May 2017 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | Hail at least the size of half dollars fell a couple miles southeast of Tucumcari. |
| May 2016 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | Quarter size hail in Tucumcari. |
| May 2015 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | Trained spotter reported quarter size hail. |
| August 2015 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | Dime to penny size hail in Tucumcari. Lightning strike also blew up a transformer. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tucumcari | - | Peak gust to 60 mph with dime size hail reported in Tucumcari. |
| June 2013 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | Golf ball hail at NMSU Agricultural Science Center. |
| June 2013 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | Penny hail reported 10 miles east southeast of Tucumcari. |
| August 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tucumcari | - | Trained spotter estimated a wind gust of 60 mph. |
| August 2013 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | Spotter reported pea to quarter size hail. |
| May 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tucumcari | - | Four inch diameter tree limbs were downed. |
| June 2012 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | Nickel size hail reported in Tucumcari. |
| March 2007 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | A burst of hail on the north side of storm core moving over central and eastern Tucumcari. |
| March 2007 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | Hail to 3 inches deep filling ditches and covering the roads on northeast side of Tucumcari. Highway department called out to blade ice from roads. |
| June 2003 | Flash Flood | Tucumcari | - | Sheriff deputies reported low water crossings flooded and several county roads closed by heavy rain southwest of Tucumcari. |
| July 1999 | Flash Flood | Tucumcari | - | Heavy rain flooded underpasses and frontage roads along Interstate 40 in Tucumcari. Several cars were trapped between arroyos and then submerged by rising water after being abandoned by the drivers. |
| May 1995 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | Severe thunderstorms in Quay County produced hail up to quarter size and strong winds which snapped some power poles in town. |
| May 1995 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | Severe thunderstorms in Quay County produced hail up to quarter size and strong winds which snapped some power poles in town. |
| May 1994 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | Thunderstorms in far eastern New Mexico produced dime-size hail and excessive rainfall. A heavy band of rain extended from near Field to Texico in Curry County with up to six inches of rain. Major street flooding occurred in both Clovis and Texico. Highways 523 and 18 were closed for the night. |
| May 2023 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| May 2023 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| May 2023 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| October 2014 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| July 2005 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| August 2005 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Flash Flood | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Flash Flood | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Funnel Cloud | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tucumcari | - | no account filed |
Newspapers printed here
7,159 digitised pages2 papers published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 718 issues, 7,159 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 |
|---|---|
| The Tucumcari News | 1905 to 1907 |
| The Tucumcari News and Tucumcari Times | 1907 to 1921 |
What the paper printed
15,583 wordsFront pages of the local paper, read from the Library of Congress scans: 9 issues spread across its run from 1905 to 1919, 15,583 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1905-10-28 | The Tucumcari News | 2,002 words |
| 1905-12-09 | The Tucumcari News | 1,473 words |
| 1905-12-30 | The Tucumcari News | 2,131 words |
| 1906-08-11 | The Tucumcari News | 1,672 words |
| 1907-03-16 | The Tucumcari News and Tucumcari Times | 1,142 words |
| 1907-06-15 | The Tucumcari News and Tucumcari Times | 559 words |
| 1907-08-31 | The Tucumcari News and Tucumcari Times | 1,406 words |
| 1907-11-23 | The Tucumcari News and Tucumcari Times | 761 words |
| 1919-12-27 | The Tucumcari News and Tucumcari Times | 4,437 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hargis | 5.2 miles | 6 | |
| Lesbia | 7.8 miles | 6 | |
| Frio (historical) | 9.3 miles | 6 | |
| Hanley (historical) | 10.4 miles | 6 | |
| Palomas | 10.6 miles | 6 | |
| Hudson | 12.0 miles | 6 | |
| Norton | 16.0 miles | 6 | |
| Quay | 16.5 miles | 6 |
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 Tucumcari | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q986001 | 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 915909. 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.



