Alta, Wyoming
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1988. It stands in the Alta census division. It lies in ZIP code area 83414. It lies near Dry Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Clawson quadrangle. 429 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,440 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresAlta grew from 394 to 429 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 | 394 | |
| 2020 | 429 | +35 (+9%) |
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 Driggs quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Driggs quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Driggs quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Clawson quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1988 USGS Rexburg quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
18 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 18 fires within 5 miles of Alta between 1994 and 2019, burning about 6 acres in total. 10 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 | 10 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Caribou-Targhee National Forest | BACKHOE |
| 7 September 1994 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Caribou-Targhee National Forest | not named |
| 24 September 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Caribou-Targhee National Forest | SNOWY |
| 17 September 2013 | Natural | under an acre | Caribou-Targhee National Forest | EDDINGTON CANYON |
| 31 August 2002 | Natural | under an acre | Caribou-Targhee National Forest | SPRING CANYON |
| 25 August 2000 | Natural | under an acre | Caribou-Targhee National Forest | SPRING CREEK |
| 23 August 2017 | Natural | under an acre | Caribou-Targhee National Forest | SHEEP BRIDGE |
| 21 August 2006 | Natural | 2.0 acres | Caribou-Targhee National Forest | BUSTLE CREEK |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
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 Alta: 4 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
5 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Alta in 5 storm reports between 2006 and 2025: 3 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2008 | Hail | Alta | 1 hurt | A cooperative observer near Alta observed nickel sized hail. |
| October 2025 | Tornado (EF1) | Alta | $1,000 | On 10/15/25 from 1:35 to 1:37 PM MDT, a thunderstorm produced an EF1 tornado near Alta, WY in the Teton Canyon portion of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. Reports from social media after the event mentioned tree damage in the Teton Canyon area. Later drone footage taken by the local sheriff's office during the week after this event, as well as satellite imagery, identified a swath of tree damage consistent with 87-104 mph winds (EF1). ||Wind speed was determined using the Enhanced Fujita Scale Damage Indicator for #28 Tree - Softwood, since this tornado occurred in a dense coniferous portion of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. No structures were in the path. Aerial drone photography showed hundreds of trees blown down by the tornado, with a clear damage swath/path through the forest. A majority of trees in the path were uprooted (Degree of Damage 3, 87 mph) or had their trunks snapped (DoD 4, 104 mph). Bark was visible on trees, and there was no notable debarking or stripping of branches seen in imagery (DoD 5). Given relatively healthy trees with no reason to believe trees were stronger or weaker than average, the lower and upper bounds for the DoDs were not utilized, and expected values were referenced. This led to a wind speed estimate of 87 to 104 mph, which is rated EF1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.||The tornado damage path is approximately 1.0 miles long, with a maximum width of 125 yards. The tornado damage path started at an elevation of 7900 ft ASL and ended around 6900 ft. |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alta | - | Trees were reported down by the public between Alta and the Grand Targhee Ski Resort. |
| July 2008 | Hail | Alta | - | Nickel sized hail was recorded by a cooperative observer near Alta. |
| June 2006 | Hail | Alta | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teton Village | 15.9 miles | 17 | |
| Beaver Creek | 16.6 miles | 15 | |
| Moose | 18.2 miles | 15 | |
| Moose Wilson Road | 18.8 miles | 17 | |
| Wilson | 19.4 miles | 17 | |
| Grovont | 21.1 miles | 15 | |
| Colter Bay Village | 23.4 miles | 15 | |
| Kelly | 23.7 miles | 15 |
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 Alta | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1949361 | 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 1597199. 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.




