The Maxwell plate. Relief from Copernicus GLO-30; rivers and lakes from USGS NHD; watersheds from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset; roads and city limits from Census TIGER 2024.
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−5° on Nov. 17, 2014, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1941. Next is 0° in 1958.
Maxwell’s center stands about 5,920 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 5,860 ft to 6,090 ft, a difference of 230 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Tinaja Mesa, about 7,790 ft, 13 miles northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Pierre Shale and Niobrara Formation, from the Late Cretaceous, 72 to 90 million years old.
The section below crosses 6 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 14×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 90 million years old. About 18 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 0.1 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 0.8 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 87 to 94 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 84 million years old. About 0.3 mi of the line.
Conglomerate, sandstone, shale. Age: Late Cretaceous to Paleocene, 56 to 100 million years old. About 0.1 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale.
Heights from Copernicus GLO-90 (a surface model: it includes buildings and tree canopy); summits from USGS GNIS; rivers from USGS NHDPlus HR; rock from the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation.
A raindrop that lands in Maxwell reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Canadian, the Arkansas and the Mississippi: about 1,910 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Conchas Lake, Murray Lake, Ozark Lake and Ute Reservoir.
720 miles of the trip are on the Canadian.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Maxwell; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Maxwell has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 87° in July; winter nights fall to about 14° in January. About 14 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Maxwell normally reaches 56° and falls to 23°. The record high is 76°, in 2025; the record low 7°, in 2014. The most rain on this date, 0.53 in, fell in 2003.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1941 at Raton Municipal Crews Field Airport, 14 miles north, 430 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
