Cactus Flat, Arizona
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1998. It stands in the Safford census division. It lies in ZIP code area 85546. It stands on Swift Canyon Wash. The Survey maps it on the Safford quadrangle. 1,524 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,127 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresCactus Flat grew from 1,518 to 1,524 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 | 1,518 | |
| 2020 | 1,524 | +6 (+0%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 14 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.
- 1954 USGS Silver City quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Silver City quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Safford quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1962 USGS Silver City quadrangle1:250000
- 1985 USGS Safford quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1994 USGS Safford quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1998 USGS Safford quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
22 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 22 fires within 5 miles of Cactus Flat between 1992 and 2020, burning about 145 acres 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 |
| Debris and open burning | 3 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 September 1995 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | not named |
| 6 July 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | JACOBSEN |
| 5 July 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 24 acres | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | FIRECRACKER |
| 25 July 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - Southeast District | CYCLONE |
| 23 July 1994 | Natural | 3.0 acres | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | not named |
| 11 July 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 acres | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | not named |
| 7 June 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | not named |
| 22 June 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Gila District Office | GK |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
7 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Cactus Flat: 4 past producers, 1 unknown, 1 prospect, 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Uranium, Halite, Bromine. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Bird Claims | Uranium | Prospect | ||
| Safford Well | Halite, Bromine | Occurrence | Brine, Halite | |
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Gravel Pits | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Morris Sand and Gravel | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
4 since 2015Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cactus Flat in 4 storm reports between 2015 and 2023: 2 hail, 1 flash 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cactus Flat | $10,000 | Thunderstorm winds knocked down several power poles south of Safford along Lebanon Rd and in Thatcher along Hoopes Ave in Daley Estates. |
| September 2015 | Flash Flood | Cactus Flat | $3,000 | One to four inches of rain fell near and especially southwest of Safford causing canals and washes to overtop their banks and flow over roadways. Water was a foot deep on parts of Highway 191 south of Safford. A vehicle on Lebanon Rd. had to be towed out of mud and rushing water. |
| August 2023 | Hail | Cactus Flat | - | no account filed |
| October 2015 | Hail | Cactus Flat | - | 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.
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 Cactus Flat | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q5016154 | 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 2346. 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.






