Empire, Nevada
20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1990. It stands in the High Desert census division. It lies in ZIP code area 89405. The Survey maps it on the Empire quadrangle. 47 people lived here at the 2020 count.
Population over time
2 figuresEmpire fell from 217 to 47 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 | 217 | |
| 2020 | 47 | -170 (-78%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 20 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.
- 1886 USGS Granite Range quadrangle1:250000
- 1894 USGS Granite Range quadrangle1:250000, 7 printings
- 1955 USGS Lovelock quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1959 USGS Lovelock quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1964 USGS Gerlach quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1981 USGS Gerlach quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1990 USGS Empire quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
12 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Empire between 1999 and 2019, burning about 8 acres in total. 3 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 |
|---|---|
| Equipment and vehicle use | 6 |
| Natural | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 September 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Winnemucca District Office | EMPIRE |
| 30 September 2011 | Natural | under an acre | Winnemucca District Office | EMPIRE RANCH |
| 29 August 2017 | Natural | under an acre | Winnemucca District Office | GYPSUM |
| 28 August 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Winnemucca District Office | MM 66 |
| 28 August 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Winnemucca District Office | MM 66A |
| 28 August 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Winnemucca District Office | MM 66B |
| 28 August 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Winnemucca District Office | MM 67 |
| 28 August 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Winnemucca District Office | MM 68A |
Mines and quarries near this place
3 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Empire: 1 plant, 1 prospect, 1 unknown. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Gypsum-Anhydrite, Gold, Tungsten. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Empire Mill | Gypsum-Anhydrite | Plant | ||
| Thrabert Mine | Tungsten | Unknown | ||
| Wildcat Gold Project | Gold | Prospect |
Storms near this place
1 since 2015Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Empire in 1 storm report in 2015: 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 2015 | Flash Flood | Empire | $25,000 | Reports from the Nevada Department of Transportation indicated water and debris over highway 447 south of Empire. The flooding caused significant erosion of road shoulders which required closure of the road for safety and repairs. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gerlach | 5.3 miles | 20 | |
| Phil | 8.2 miles | 20 | |
| Deep Hole | 12.4 miles | 20 | |
| Reynard | 16.5 miles | 18 | |
| Smoke Creek | 19.4 miles | 19 | |
| Hot Springs (historical) | 19.7 miles | 18 | |
| Buffalo Meadows (historical) | 21.3 miles | 18 | |
| Sano | 24.3 miles | 19 |
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 Empire | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q5373997 | 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 845454. 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.






