Eagle Nest Dam

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

From the record

“The Eagle Nest Dam is a dam just east of the town of Eagle Nest, New Mexico on U.S. The dam, on private property, is on the Cimarron River, and is responsible for Eagle Nest Lake.”
Wikipedia article Eagle Nest Dam, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 30 National Register listings published here for Colfax County · listed in 1979 · category: Structure.

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 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Address. 3 mi. SE of Eagle Nest off U.S. 64, Eagle Nest, 87714
When was it listed? April 1979
Category. structure
Census division. Cimarron
National Register reference number. 79001537 - 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

40 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 40 fires within 5 miles of Eagle Nest Dam between 1996 and 2019, burning about 2,632 acres in total. 26 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	26
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	6
Debris and open burning	2
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Recreation and ceremony	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
8 August 2003	Natural	under an acre	New Mexico State Forestry Division	COORS
26 August 2010	Natural	under an acre	Cimarron District	TOLBY
26 August 2003	Natural	under an acre	New Mexico State Forestry Division	BLACKJACK
6 July 2012	Natural	under an acre	Cimarron District	HORSESHOE
5 July 2012	Natural	under an acre	New Mexico State Forestry Division	SQUASH BLOSSOM
5 July 2003	Natural	1.0 acres	New Mexico State Forestry Division	CLEAR
3 July 2002	Natural	under an acre	New Mexico State Forestry Division	LAKE VIEW
29 July 2015	Natural	under an acre	New Mexico State Forestry Division	MORENO

Every fire recorded in Colfax County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Eagle Nest Dam: 1 past producer, 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Gold, 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
	Elizabeth-Baldy	Gold	Past Producer	1866
	Materials Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown

Every working recorded in Colfax County

Storms near this property

7 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Eagle Nest, the town this property stands in, in 7 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 5 hail, 1 lightning, 1 flash flood. The reports record 1 death and 4 injuries. 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
June 2015	Flash Flood	Eagle Nest	1 killed, 3 hurt, $50,000	New Mexico Department of Transportation closed US Highway 64 as heavy rain caused debris, boulders and a mud slide to cover several miles of the road. Philmont Scout Ranch also reported major flash flooding on the Ponil Creek basin that ran through a boy scout camp site in the nearby mountains. The flooding washed away 4 boys, killing 1.
July 1998	Lightning	Eagle Nest	1 hurt	A 38 year old man was injured slightly when struck by lightning while working outside at Eagle Nest.
June 2025	Hail	Eagle Nest	-	Penny size hail was observed in Eagle Nest from a strong thunderstorm.
August 2018	Hail	Eagle Nest	-	Hail up to the size of golf balls reported near Eagle Nest Lake.
August 2012	Hail	Eagle Nest	-	Nickel size hail reported in Eagle Nest.
July 2005	Hail	Eagle Nest	-	no account filed
June 1999	Hail	Eagle Nest	-	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.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 79001537 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.