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El Refugio, Texas

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1949 and the latest in 2002. It stands in the Rio Grande City census division. It lies in ZIP code area 78582. The Survey maps it on the Rio Grande City South quadrangle. 407 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 151 feet above sea level.

El Refugio within Starr County

Population over time

3 figures

El Refugio grew from 221 to 407 between 2000 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
2000221
2010331+110 (+50%)
2020407+76 (+23%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 11 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.

Fires near this place

384 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 384 fires within 5 miles of El Refugio between 1996 and 2020, burning about 1,782 acres in total. None started naturally. 14 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
Debris and open burning231
Missing data/not specified/undetermined128
Arson/incendiarism14
Equipment and vehicle use9
Misuse of fire by a minor2

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
9 September 2016Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Service86 OLD CASITA RD
8 September 2006Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
7 September 2005Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
6 September 2018Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceOLD CASITA RD.
6 September 2015Debris and open burning4.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Service6154 FM 1430 RD
3 September 2020Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Service10 PARROT LN.
3 September 2018Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceW. HINOJOSA ST.
3 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceLA REFORMA ST.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Starr County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of El Refugio: 2 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay. 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
Lopez Ready Mix PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducerGravel, Sand
Nordmeyer Incorporated OperationsClayProducer

Every working recorded in Starr 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
El Refugio Colonia0.2 miles11
Tamez Colonia0.4 miles11
La Puerta0.6 miles11
La Puerta Number 2 Colonia0.7 miles11
Amada Acres Colonia0.8 miles11
El Chaparral Number 2 Colonia0.8 miles11
Kelsay0.8 miles11
Garza-Salinas Number 2 Colonia0.9 miles11

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 El RefugioAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q952603The 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 1335260. 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.