Rifton, New York
28 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1901 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Esopus town. It lies in ZIP code area 12487. It stands on Swarte Kill. The Survey maps it on the Rosendale quadrangle. 481 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 180 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1901 to 1986The same ground, surveyed 85 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Population over time
2 figuresRifton grew from 456 to 481 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 | 456 | |
| 2020 | 481 | +25 (+5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 28 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.
- 1901 USGS Rosendale quadrangle1:62500
- 1903 USGS Rosendale quadrangle1:62500, 11 printings
- 1942 USGS Rosendale quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1943 USGS Rosendale quadrangle1:31680
- 1950 USGS Scranton quadrangle1:250000
- 1953 USGS Scranton quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Scranton quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Scranton quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1964 USGS Rosendale quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1965 USGS Scranton quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1986 USGS Monticello quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
167 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 167 fires within 5 miles of Rifton between 1997 and 2020, burning about 180 acres in total. 9 started naturally. 11 were 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 87 |
| Smoking | 20 |
| Debris and open burning | 19 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 15 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 11 |
| Natural | 9 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 4 |
| Other causes | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | N/A |
| 28 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | N/A |
| 21 September 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | NA |
| 15 September 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.5 acres | Fire Department of New York | not named |
| 14 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | not named |
| 13 September 2005 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | not named |
| 12 September 2016 | Smoking | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | N/A |
| 7 August 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | N/A |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
8 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Rifton: 5 past producers, 3 producers. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Limestone, General, Bloating Material. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eddyville | Bloating Material | Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Eddyville Clay Pit | Clay | Past Producer | ||
| Kingston Quarry | Limestone, General | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Kingston Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Nytralite Aggregates | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Dwyer Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Dwyer Pit and Mill | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| H. Franco and Son Sand and Stone Co | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
1 since 2003Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rifton in 1 storm report in 2003: 1 lightning. The reports record 1 injury. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2003 | Lightning | Rifton | 1 hurt | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dashville | 1.2 miles | 28 | |
| Lefever Falls | 1.7 miles | 28 | |
| Tillson | 1.8 miles | 28 | |
| Creeklocks | 2.3 miles | 28 | |
| Union Center | 2.3 miles | 30 | |
| Kallops Corners | 2.3 miles | 28 | |
| Maple Hill | 2.4 miles | 28 | |
| Rosendale | 2.4 miles | 28 |
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 Rifton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3460136 | 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 962517. 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.










