Cottonwood, Arizona
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1892 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Chinle census division. It lies in ZIP code area 86503. It lies near Tabahinez Mesa. The Survey maps it on the Toadindaaska Mesa quadrangle. 167 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,069 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresCottonwood fell from 226 to 167 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 | 226 | |
| 2020 | 167 | -59 (-26%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 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.
- 1892 USGS Canyon De Chelly quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1954 USGS Shiprock quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1958 USGS Shiprock quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Shiprock quadrangle1:250000
- 1972 USGS Toadindaaska Mesa quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Canyon De Chelly quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
5 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Cottonwood between 1994 and 2019, burning about 16 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 1 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 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 July 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14 acres | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | COTTONWOOD |
| 25 June 2006 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | BLUE GAP 02 |
| 24 June 2001 | Natural | under an acre | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | COTTONWOOD |
| 20 June 1994 | Natural | under an acre | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | CRYSTAL |
| 13 June 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | COTTONWOOD 1 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Cottonwood: 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Clay. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unidentified Clay Deposit | Clay | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
3 since 2010Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cottonwood in 3 storm reports between 2010 and 2018: 2 flash flood, 1 tornado. 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 2018 | Flash Flood | Cottonwood | - | Flash flooding one mile east of the Blue Gap Store badly damaged Highway 4. |
| August 2010 | Flash Flood | Cottonwood | - | Heavy rain and flooding made Route 4 impassable due to high water between mile marker 40 and 43. |
| October 2010 | Tornado (EF0) | Cottonwood | - | A tornado was observed touching down between Cottonwood and Blue Gap. Trees and bushes were knocked down. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salina | 3.7 miles | 14 | |
| Blue Gap | 7.3 miles | 14 | |
| Tahchee | 10.7 miles | 14 | |
| Coyote Springs | 16.0 miles | 14 | |
| Tsintaa Yiti Ii | 17.6 miles | 16 | |
| Flat Rock | 18.4 miles | 15 | |
| Chinle | 18.9 miles | 15 | |
| Junction Overlook | 21.6 miles | 17 |
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 Cottonwood | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q5790247 | 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 3304. 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.





