Westcliffe, Colorado | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 38°7′58″N105°27′57″W / 38.13278°N 105.46583°W | |
Country | United States |
State | State of Colorado |
County [1] | Custer County - seat [2] |
Incorporated | November 21, 1887 [3] |
Government | |
• Type | Statutory Town [1] |
• Mayor | Paul Wenke |
Area | |
• Total | 1.24 sq mi (3.20 km2) |
• Land | 1.24 sq mi (3.20 km2) |
• Water | 0.00 sq mi (0.00 km2) |
Elevation | 7,867 ft (2,398 m) |
Population | |
• Total | 435 |
• Density | 350/sq mi (140/km2) |
Time zone | UTC-7 (Mountain (MST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-6 (MDT) |
ZIP code [7] | 81252 |
Area code | 719 |
FIPS code | 08-83450 |
GNIS feature ID | 0192151 |
Website | townofwestcliffe.com |
Westcliffe is a statutory town that is the county seat of Custer County, Colorado, United States. [8] [2] At the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 435. [6]
Westcliffe had its start in 1881 when the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad was extended to that point. [9] In 1976, Sangre de Cristo Seminary was founded near Westcliffe, where it still operates.
Westcliffe is located west of the geographic center of Custer County at 38°7′58″N105°27′57″W / 38.13278°N 105.46583°W (38.132874, -105.465920). [10] It lies in the Wet Mountain Valley, between the Wet Mountains to the east and the Sangre de Cristo Range to the west. The town of Silver Cliff is immediately to the east of Westcliffe.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.2 square miles (3.2 km2), all of it land. [11]
Climate data for Westcliffe, Colorado, 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1895–present | |||||||||||||
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Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °F (°C) | 65 (18) | 69 (21) | 74 (23) | 78 (26) | 88 (31) | 95 (35) | 96 (36) | 94 (34) | 90 (32) | 82 (28) | 79 (26) | 72 (22) | 96 (36) |
Mean maximum °F (°C) | 55.3 (12.9) | 56.5 (13.6) | 64.6 (18.1) | 70.4 (21.3) | 78.4 (25.8) | 86.3 (30.2) | 88.1 (31.2) | 85.1 (29.5) | 81.4 (27.4) | 74.9 (23.8) | 64.4 (18.0) | 56.2 (13.4) | 88.9 (31.6) |
Mean daily maximum °F (°C) | 39.6 (4.2) | 41.7 (5.4) | 49.6 (9.8) | 56.4 (13.6) | 65.8 (18.8) | 76.9 (24.9) | 80.6 (27.0) | 78.0 (25.6) | 72.4 (22.4) | 61.3 (16.3) | 48.9 (9.4) | 39.8 (4.3) | 59.2 (15.1) |
Daily mean °F (°C) | 23.9 (−4.5) | 26.9 (−2.8) | 34.6 (1.4) | 41.0 (5.0) | 49.5 (9.7) | 58.7 (14.8) | 62.8 (17.1) | 61.1 (16.2) | 54.7 (12.6) | 43.7 (6.5) | 32.8 (0.4) | 23.9 (−4.5) | 42.8 (6.0) |
Mean daily minimum °F (°C) | 8.3 (−13.2) | 12.1 (−11.1) | 19.6 (−6.9) | 25.7 (−3.5) | 33.3 (0.7) | 40.6 (4.8) | 44.9 (7.2) | 44.1 (6.7) | 37.0 (2.8) | 26.1 (−3.3) | 16.7 (−8.5) | 8.0 (−13.3) | 26.4 (−3.1) |
Mean minimum °F (°C) | −13.7 (−25.4) | −12.6 (−24.8) | −3.1 (−19.5) | 5.2 (−14.9) | 19.8 (−6.8) | 30.3 (−0.9) | 37.9 (3.3) | 35.8 (2.1) | 23.9 (−4.5) | 5.6 (−14.7) | −7.6 (−22.0) | −15.9 (−26.6) | −19.8 (−28.8) |
Record low °F (°C) | −41 (−41) | −46 (−43) | −31 (−35) | −25 (−32) | −2 (−19) | 17 (−8) | 25 (−4) | 20 (−7) | 4 (−16) | −12 (−24) | −29 (−34) | −39 (−39) | −46 (−43) |
Average precipitation inches (mm) | 0.48 (12) | 0.58 (15) | 1.06 (27) | 1.56 (40) | 1.41 (36) | 0.79 (20) | 2.66 (68) | 1.98 (50) | 0.90 (23) | 0.95 (24) | 0.69 (18) | 0.53 (13) | 13.59 (346) |
Average snowfall inches (cm) | 8.4 (21) | 10.4 (26) | 15.0 (38) | 19.6 (50) | 4.3 (11) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.9 (2.3) | 8.4 (21) | 8.5 (22) | 8.8 (22) | 84.3 (213.3) |
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) | 3.7 | 4.7 | 6.6 | 6.8 | 6.9 | 5.8 | 11.6 | 11.6 | 5.9 | 5.1 | 4.1 | 4.3 | 77.1 |
Average snowy days (≥ 0.1 in) | 3.7 | 4.6 | 5.7 | 4.4 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.8 | 3.4 | 4.1 | 29.2 |
Source 1: NOAA [12] | |||||||||||||
Source 2: National Weather Service [13] |
Westcliffe, and neighboring Silver Cliff, Colorado, are recognized as IDA International Dark Sky Communities by The International Dark-Sky Association. Gentle persuasion has resulted in residents and business in the towns and surrounding ranch land reducing the amount of light pollution. [14]
Locals have set up a free observatory in an old period building with a "roll-off" roof to open up the 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with computer-guided pointing and tracking to the skies overhead. Named the Smokey Jack Observatory, it was built in 2015. [15] [16]
Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
---|---|---|---|
1890 | 192 | — | |
1900 | 256 | 33.3% | |
1910 | 232 | −9.4% | |
1920 | 338 | 45.7% | |
1930 | 335 | −0.9% | |
1940 | 429 | 28.1% | |
1950 | 390 | −9.1% | |
1960 | 306 | −21.5% | |
1970 | 243 | −20.6% | |
1980 | 324 | 33.3% | |
1990 | 312 | −3.7% | |
2000 | 417 | 33.7% | |
2010 | 568 | 36.2% | |
2020 | 435 | −23.4% |
Saguache County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,368. The county seat is Saguache.
Huerfano County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,820. The county seat is Walsenburg. The county, whose name comes from the Spanish huérfano meaning "orphan", was named for the Huerfano Butte, a local landmark. The area of Huerfano County boomed early in the 1900s with the discovery of large coal deposits. After large scale World War II coal demand ended in the 1940s Walsenburg and Huerfano saw a steady economic decline through 2015.
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Custer County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,704. The county seat is Westcliffe.
The Town of Silver Cliff is the Statutory Town that is the most populous municipality in Custer County, Colorado, United States. The population was 609 at the 2020 census, up from 587 in 2010.
Norwood is a Statutory Town in San Miguel County, Colorado, United States. The population was 535 at the 2020 census.
The Wet Mountain Valley is a high elevation mountain valley mostly located in Custer County but extending southward into Huerfano County in south-central Colorado. Westcliffe and Silver Cliff are the two towns in the valley which is mostly devoted to cattle ranching.
Blanca Peak is the fourth highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America and the U.S. state of Colorado. The ultra-prominent 14,351-foot (4,374 m) peak is the highest summit of the Sierra Blanca Massif, the Sangre de Cristo Range, and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The fourteener is located 9.6 miles (15.5 km) north by east of the Town of Blanca, on the drainage divide separating Rio Grande National Forest and Alamosa County from the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant and Costilla County. The summit is the highest point of both counties and the entire drainage basin of the Rio Grande. Below the steep North Face of Blanca Peak two live Glaciers once developed, until extinction sometime after 1903. North & South Blanca Glaciers were located at 37° 35N.,longitude 105° 28W. Blanca Peak is higher than any point in the United States east of its longitude.
Humboldt Peak is a high mountain summit of the Crestones in the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 14,070-foot (4,289 m) fourteener is located in the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness of San Isabel National Forest, 11.9 miles (19.2 km) south-southwest of the Town of Westcliffe in Custer County, Colorado, United States.
The Wet Mountains are a small mountain range in southern Colorado, named for the amount of snow they receive in the winter as compared to the dry Great Plains to the east. They are a sub-range of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, in the southern Rocky Mountains System. There are three variant names of mountain range: Cuerno Verde, Greenhorn Mountains, and Sierra Mojada.
Rosita was a silver mining town — now a ghost town — in Custer County, Colorado, United States. Rosita is Spanish for little rose. Although the old town has almost entirely disappeared, the surrounding area has been largely developed into semi-rural home sites.
Custer County High School is a public high school located in Westcliffe, Colorado, United States.
Grape Creek is a tributary of the Arkansas River that flows through Custer and Fremont counties in South-Central Colorado. The creek drains much of the Wet Mountain Valley, located between the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the Wet Mountains in Custer County.
The Frontier Pathways is a 103-mile (166 km) National Scenic Byway and Colorado Scenic and Historic Byway located in Custer and Pueblo counties, Colorado, US.
Horn Peak is a 13,450-foot (4,100 m) mountain summit in Custer County, Colorado, United States.
Spread Eagle Peak is a 13,423-foot (4,091 m) mountain summit in Custer County, Colorado, United States.
Eureka Mountain is a 13,507-foot (4,117 m) mountain summit on the boundary shared by Custer and Saguache counties, in Colorado, United States.
Electric Peak is a 13,598-foot (4,145 m) mountain summit on the boundary shared by Custer and Saguache counties, in Colorado, United States.