Vaughn, New Mexico
6 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Vaughn census division. It lies in ZIP code area 88353. The Survey maps it on the Vaughn quadrangle. 286 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 5,978 feet above sea level.
Population over time
3 figuresVaughn fell from 539 to 286 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 | 539 | |
| 2010 | 446 | -93 (-17%) |
| 2020 | 286 | -160 (-36%) |
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.
- 1954 USGS Fort Sumner quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Fort Sumner quadrangle1:250000
- 1978 USGS Vaughn quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Vaughn quadrangle1:100000
Photographs
8 of 34 photographs shown, 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.
Delano, Jack, 1943. Library of Congress
Delano, Jack, 1943. Library of Congress
Delano, Jack, 1943. Library of Congress
Delano, Jack, 1943. Library of Congress
Delano, Jack, 1943. Library of Congress
Delano, Jack, 1943. Library of Congress
Delano, Jack, 1943. Library of Congress
Delano, Jack, 1943. Library of Congress
Every photograph of Guadalupe County
Fires near this place
7 since 2002Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Vaughn between 2002 and 2018, burning about 10,401 acres in total. 2 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 | 2 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 September 2010 | Natural | 300 acres | Las Vegas District | CABALLEO |
| 24 July 2005 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 2,500 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | DOUBLE V V |
| 29 June 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 138 acres | Las Vegas District | NIGHT |
| 25 June 2002 | Natural | 7,420 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | TEJON |
| 17 April 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | 10 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | TEJON |
| 30 March 2009 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 30 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | TUNNEL |
| 27 October 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | SMALL |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Vaughn: 2 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 66-3-S | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Materials Pit 72-18-S | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
35 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Vaughn in 35 storm reports between 1996 and 2026: 22 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 5 tornado, 1 flash flood. 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 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vaughn | $5,000 | A two foot diameter, 60 foot tall tree was blown down in the front of a police station. Winds were estimated at 60 to 70 mph. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vaughn | $4,000 | A bow echo caused damaging winds which blew down a small tree, caused roof damage to city buildings and blew down a sign at a gas station. |
| July 2009 | Hail | Vaughn | $500 | A wind shield was damaged on a vehicle. |
| April 2026 | Tornado (EFU) | Vaughn | - | Workers looking east from a wind farm field team near Corona observed a brief tornado. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vaughn | - | The mesonet station a few miles southeast of Vaughn measured a 61 mph wind gust as showers moved through the area. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vaughn | - | The mesonet station a few miles southeast of Vaughn measured a peak wind gust surpassing the limits of their instrumentation of 67 mph with another wind gust of 61 mph shortly thereafter as showers moved through the area. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vaughn | - | A public station along the Union Pacific Railroad east of Vaughn measured a wind gust of 60 mph as virga showers moved through the area. |
| May 2023 | Tornado (EFU) | Vaughn | - | Storm chasers shared video of a brief tornado in a very remote area just north of Vaughn, NM. |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vaughn | - | A mesonet station just southeast of Vaughn reported a 67 mph wind gust from a dry thunderstorm. |
| May 2021 | Hail | Vaughn | - | A trained spotter estimated nickel size hail from a strong thunderstorm near Vaughn. A travel camera indicated that hail had accumulated along U.S. Highway 285, but no impacts were reported. |
| May 2021 | Hail | Vaughn | - | A trained spotter reported penny size hail from a strong thunderstorm tracking eastward near Vaughn. |
| June 2021 | Hail | Vaughn | - | A storm chaser southeast of Vaughn reported nickel size hail from a strong thunderstorm tracking southward through the area. |
| June 2020 | Hail | Vaughn | - | A storm chaser in the Vaughn area reported nickel size hail with a strong thunderstorm that moved through the area. |
| June 2019 | Hail | Vaughn | - | Penny size hail in Vaughn. |
| September 2016 | Funnel Cloud | Vaughn | - | Funnel cloud reported via local media on Twitter south of Vaughn. |
| September 2016 | Tornado (EF0) | Vaughn | - | A distant tornado was spotted approximately 13 miles south-southwest of Vaughn by the COOP observer near Pedernal. Tornado appeared on the ground for around 3 to 5 minutes with no damage reported. |
| June 2015 | Hail | Vaughn | - | New Mexico Department of Transportation reported penny size hail near Vaughn. |
| September 2008 | Tornado (EF0) | Vaughn | - | A tropical funnel briefly touched down near Vaughn. |
| June 1999 | Hail | Vaughn | - | State Police reported hail, strong wind and heavy rain at the scene of an accident on Highway 285. |
| September 2014 | Hail | Vaughn | - | no account filed |
| September 2014 | Hail | Vaughn | - | no account filed |
| May 2010 | Hail | Vaughn | - | no account filed |
| July 2009 | Hail | Vaughn | - | no account filed |
| July 2009 | Hail | Vaughn | - | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Hail | Vaughn | - | no account filed |
| August 2007 | Hail | Vaughn | - | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Hail | Vaughn | - | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Hail | Vaughn | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Vaughn | - | no account filed |
| July 2004 | Hail | Vaughn | - | no account filed |
| October 2004 | Hail | Vaughn | - | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Flash Flood | Vaughn | - | no account filed |
| April 2000 | Hail | Vaughn | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Tornado (F0) | Vaughn | - | no account filed |
| July 1996 | Hail | Vaughn | - | 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.
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 Vaughn | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2376326 | 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 918400. 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.



