Lajitas, Texas
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1903 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Alpine census division. It lies in ZIP code area 79852. It stands on Comanche Creek. The Survey maps it on the Lajitas quadrangle. It stands 2,342 feet above sea level.
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 17 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.
- 1903 USGS Terlingua quadrangle1:125000
- 1904 USGS Terlingua quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1931 USGS Lajitas quadrangle1:62500
- 1959 USGS Emory Peak quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1965 USGS Emory Peak quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS Lajitas quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1985 USGS Chisos Mountains quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
Photographs
1 photograph, 2014Taken 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.
Highsmith, Carol M, 2014. Library of Congress
Fires near this place
3 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Lajitas between 1997 and 2008, burning under an acre in total. 2 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 | 2 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 May 1997 | Natural | under an acre | Big Bend National Park | AMY3 |
| 24 November 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Big Bend National Park | METATE |
| 11 October 1997 | Natural | under an acre | Big Bend National Park | LV |
Mines and quarries near this place
4 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Lajitas: 3 occurrences, 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Mercury, Lead, Zinc, Gold, Silver, Mercury, Vanadium, Lead, Zinc, Vanadium, Silver, Mercury, Gold. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lajitas | Lead, Zinc, Gold, Silver, Mercury, Vanadium | Occurrence | ||
| Lajitas | Lead, Zinc, Vanadium, Silver, Mercury, Gold | Occurrence | ||
| Contrabando Dome Mine | Mercury | Past Producer | 1935 | |
| Unnamed Prospects | Mercury | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
17 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lajitas in 17 storm reports between 1997 and 2023: 12 hail, 3 flash flood, 1 flood, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2008 | Flood | Lajitas | $14,000,000 | Lajitas Resort and Spa owner reported flooding across most of his property. This included the Ambush Golf Course, which was covered in water. |
| October 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lajitas | $40,000 | Rio Grande Electric Coop and the public reported wind damage from Lajitas, TX to Terlingua, TX. The severe winds first damaged the roof of a home and 6 power poles in Lajitas around 1700 CST. As the storm moved northeastward, it snapped 4 more power poles along State Highway 170 from Lajitas to Terlingua. |
| April 2004 | Hail | Lajitas | $30,000 | Seven vehicles received hail damage during the storm. |
| July 2005 | Flash Flood | Lajitas | $1,000 | The public reported that flowing flood waters had washed away high water markers in low water crossings on several roads. |
| May 2023 | Flash Flood | Lajitas | - | TxDot El Paso reported flooding of Comanche Creek and Ranch Road 170. |
| June 2007 | Flash Flood | Lajitas | - | Six feet of water flowed through Comanche Creek across Farm to Market Road 170 just northeast of Lajitas. |
| June 2005 | Hail | Lajitas | - | Nickel to quarter size hail was reported in Lajitas.A pair of severe thunderstorms propagated northward and crossed the Rio Grande during the afternoon of the 9th. These storms produced large hail in southern Brewster County. |
| April 2004 | Hail | Lajitas | - | Supercell thunderstorms moving northeast into the extreme southwest portion of Brewster County produced grapefruit to softball size hail for 22 minutes. Reports indicated that the softball size hail occurred around 530 pm CST. |
| May 2017 | Hail | Lajitas | - | no account filed |
| April 2017 | Hail | Lajitas | - | no account filed |
| October 2009 | Hail | Lajitas | - | no account filed |
| April 2007 | Hail | Lajitas | - | no account filed |
| April 2007 | Hail | Lajitas | - | no account filed |
| April 2007 | Hail | Lajitas | - | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Hail | Lajitas | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Lajitas | - | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Hail | Lajitas | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terlingua | 9.5 miles | 16 | |
| Terlingua Abaja | 10.1 miles | 15 | |
| Lunas | 13.2 miles | 15 | |
| Tres Papalotes | 13.5 miles | 15 | |
| Study Butte | 13.6 miles | 16 | |
| Castolon | 16.5 miles | 15 | |
| Santa Elena Crossing | 16.5 miles | 13 | |
| Buenos Aires | 20.3 miles | 11 |
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 Lajitas | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q6474319 | 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 1339481. 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.






