Dorsey Mansion

Built in 1878 (Gothic architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

From the record

“The Dorsey Mansion is a log and stone mansion built in 1878 by Stephen W. Dorsey, a controversial carpetbagging Republican who served as United States Senator from Arkansas during the Reconstruction from 1873 until 1879.”
Wikipedia article Dorsey Mansion, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 30 National Register listings published here for Colfax County · listed in 1970 · category: Building · built in 1878, Gothic architecture.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 7 buildingss, 3 objectss as contributing to the listing.
Address. About 12 mi. NE of Abbott off U.S. 56., Abbott, 87740
When was it listed? September 1970
Category. building
Census division. Springer
When was it built? 1878
Architectural style. Gothic architecture
National Register reference number. 70000399 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

11 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 11 fires within 5 miles of Dorsey Mansion between 1994 and 2019, burning about 663 acres in total. 7 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
Natural	7
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	4

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 August 2000	Natural	100 acres	New Mexico State Forestry Division	RICE
20 August 2019	Natural	32 acres	Cimarron District	20-20360194X
20 August 2019	Natural	15 acres	Cimarron District	20-20390198X
2 July 1994	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5.0 acres	New Mexico State Forestry Division	CHICO
18 July 2016	Natural	under an acre	Cimarron District	POINT OF ROCKS
17 July 1994	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	20 acres	New Mexico State Forestry Division	LAUGHLIN
7 June 2000	Natural	350 acres	New Mexico State Forestry Division	CHRISTMAS
17 June 2018	Natural	35 acres	Cimarron District	FUDGE HILL

Every fire recorded in Colfax County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Dorsey Mansion: 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: 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
	Shell Prospect	Uranium	Occurrence

Every working recorded in Colfax County

Storms near this property

27 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Abbott, the town this property stands in, in 27 storm reports between 1999 and 2025: 22 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado. 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 2016	Hail	Abbott	$30,000	Baseball size hail destroyed brand new pickup truck.
July 2023	Hail	Abbott	$10,000	Two glass windows were broken at a residence. A neighbor also reported five cars being dented by the hail. Damage is an estimate.
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Abbott	$5,000	A severe thunderstorm that moved eastward along Highway 56 downed power lines about 5 miles west of Abbott. Damage amounts are a rough estimate.
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Abbott	$5,000	Trained spotter reported downed telephone pole from thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 60mph or greater.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Abbott	$5,000	The thunderstorm wind gusts partially knocked over a windmill tower. A few branches were also downed from trees, with one branch knocking out the power.
July 2025	Hail	Abbott	-	The Abbott COOP observer reported hail up to quarter size from a severe thunderstorm.
June 2023	Hail	Abbott	-	A trained spotter and storm chaser reported half dollar size to hen egg size hail in Abbott.
July 2023	Tornado (EFU)	Abbott	-	A cone tornado was reported by storm chasers just southeast of the intersection of NM 39 and U.S. Highway 56. The tornado lasted three minutes and was rain-wrapped for a time.
August 2019	Hail	Abbott	-	Hail up to the size of quarters in Abbott.
June 2014	Tornado (EF0)	Abbott	-	Meteorologist reported a supercell thunderstorm producing a tornado for 10 minutes 2 miles northwest of Dorsey Mansion State Monument. No damage was reported.
May 2010	Hail	Abbott	-	no account filed
May 2010	Hail	Abbott	-	no account filed
September 2008	Hail	Abbott	-	no account filed
September 2006	Hail	Abbott	-	no account filed
August 2006	Hail	Abbott	-	no account filed
June 2004	Hail	Abbott	-	no account filed
June 2004	Hail	Abbott	-	no account filed
April 2002	Hail	Abbott	-	no account filed
June 2002	Hail	Abbott	-	no account filed
June 2002	Hail	Abbott	-	no account filed
June 2002	Hail	Abbott	-	no account filed
June 2001	Hail	Abbott	-	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Abbott	-	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Abbott	-	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Abbott	-	no account filed
June 2000	Hail	Abbott	-	no account filed
July 1999	Hail	Abbott	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Colfax County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

1 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph	Property	Distance	Listed
	Point of Rocks Historic District	4.8 miles	1994

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 70000399 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Colfax County	All 30 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
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.