BlockBefore

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.

Wells within Elko County

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

Surveyed buildings and structures 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Wells 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.

YearPeople Change
20101,292
20201,237-55 (-4%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 10 printed sheets

Matched 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.

Photographs

1 photograph, 1940

Taken 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.

Southern Pacific track approaching Wells, Nevada
Southern Pacific track approaching Wells, Nevada
Rothstein, Arthur, 1940. Library of Congress

Fires near this place

42 since 1993

Regional 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
Natural16
Missing data/not specified/undetermined10
Railroad operations and maintenance6
Equipment and vehicle use5
Smoking2
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Firearms and explosives use1
Misuse of fire by a minor1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
8 September 1999Railroad operations and maintenance2.0 acresElko District OfficeRAILROAD 2
5 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreElko District OfficeROADWAY
30 September 2011Natural1.5 acresElko District OfficeWELLS GRAVEL PIT
27 September 1993Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreElko District OfficeSOUTHERN
16 September 1995Natural120 acresElko District OfficeWOOD HILLS
6 August 1993Naturalunder an acreElko District OfficeWOOD HILL1
4 August 2012Firearms and explosives useunder an acreElko District OfficeWEST HIGHWAY 93
23 August 1999Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreElko District OfficeGUN RANGE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Elko County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 15 shown

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Hot Sulphur SpringsGeothermalUnknown
RebertaLeadUnknown
Wells City PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
West PequipGold, SilverUnknown
Marble OccurrenceLimestone, GeneralUnknown
Marble OccurrenceMarble, DimensionUnknown
Nevada Picture RockStone, DimensionPast Producer1947
QuarryStone, DimensionUnknown
Sandstone MineStone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown
Unnamed, Limestone, ChertLimestone, GeneralOccurrence

Every working recorded in Elko County

Storms near this place

4 since 1996

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2006FloodWells$5,000Portions of the road to the Tabor Creek Campground were washed out by floodwaters.
June 1998Tornado (F0)Wells-A brief weak tornado touched down southeast of Wells. No damage was reported.
April 1999HailWells-no account filed
July 1996Flash FloodWells-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Elko County

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 PlaceDistance Sheets
Alazon3.8 miles10
Welcome7.5 miles10
Moor7.9 miles11
Tulasco8.5 miles10
Melandco13.7 miles10
Holborn14.2 miles9
Wood (historical)14.9 miles14
Tobar (historical)15.4 miles10

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 WellsAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2076290The 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.