Wells, Nevada
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the Wells census division. It lies in ZIP code area 89835. It lies near Town Creek Flat. The Survey maps it on the Wells quadrangle. 1,237 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 5,630 feet above sea level.
On record in Wells
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 1 record
- El Rancho Hotel and Casinolisted 2024
Surveyed buildings and structures 1 record
- Town of Wells, Wellsfederal building survey, 1 photograph
Population over time
2 figuresWells fell from 1,292 to 1,237 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 | 1,292 | |
| 2020 | 1,237 | -55 (-4%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 10 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.
- 1955 USGS Wells quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Wells quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Wells quadrangle1:250000
- 1968 USGS Wells quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1981 USGS Wells quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Photographs
1 photograph, 1940Taken 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.
Rothstein, Arthur, 1940. Library of Congress
Fires near this place
42 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 42 fires within 5 miles of Wells between 1993 and 2019, burning about 73,953 acres in total. 16 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 | 16 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 6 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 5 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Firearms and explosives use | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 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 1999 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 2.0 acres | Elko District Office | RAILROAD 2 |
| 5 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Elko District Office | ROADWAY |
| 30 September 2011 | Natural | 1.5 acres | Elko District Office | WELLS GRAVEL PIT |
| 27 September 1993 | Railroad operations and maintenance | under an acre | Elko District Office | SOUTHERN |
| 16 September 1995 | Natural | 120 acres | Elko District Office | WOOD HILLS |
| 6 August 1993 | Natural | under an acre | Elko District Office | WOOD HILL1 |
| 4 August 2012 | Firearms and explosives use | under an acre | Elko District Office | WEST HIGHWAY 93 |
| 23 August 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Elko District Office | GUN RANGE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 15 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 15 workings within 5 miles of Wells: 7 unknowns, 4 occurrences, 4 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Pumice, Marble, Dimension, Limestone, General, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hot Sulphur Springs | Geothermal | Unknown | ||
| Reberta | Lead | Unknown | ||
| Wells City Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| West Pequip | Gold, Silver | Unknown | ||
| Marble Occurrence | Limestone, General | Unknown | ||
| Marble Occurrence | Marble, Dimension | Unknown | ||
| Nevada Picture Rock | Stone, Dimension | Past Producer | 1947 | |
| Quarry | Stone, Dimension | Unknown | ||
| Sandstone Mine | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Unknown | ||
| Unnamed, Limestone, Chert | Limestone, General | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
4 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wells in 4 storm reports between 1996 and 2006: 1 flash flood, 1 tornado, 1 hail, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2006 | Flood | Wells | $5,000 | Portions of the road to the Tabor Creek Campground were washed out by floodwaters. |
| June 1998 | Tornado (F0) | Wells | - | A brief weak tornado touched down southeast of Wells. No damage was reported. |
| April 1999 | Hail | Wells | - | no account filed |
| July 1996 | Flash Flood | Wells | - | 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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alazon | 3.8 miles | 10 | |
| Welcome | 7.5 miles | 10 | |
| Moor | 7.9 miles | 11 | |
| Tulasco | 8.5 miles | 10 | |
| Melandco | 13.7 miles | 10 | |
| Holborn | 14.2 miles | 9 | |
| Wood (historical) | 14.9 miles | 14 | |
| Tobar (historical) | 15.4 miles | 10 |
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 Wells | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2076290 | 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 845730. 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.




