Del Muerto, Arizona
17 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. The Survey maps it on the Del Muerto quadrangle. 258 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,440 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresDel Muerto fell from 329 to 258 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 | 329 | |
| 2020 | 258 | -71 (-22%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 17 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
- 1955 USGS Canyon Del Muerto quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS Sonsala Butte 3 NW quadrangle1:24000
- 1958 USGS Shiprock quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Shiprock quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Del Muerto quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Canyon De Chelly quadrangle1:100000
Photographs
1 photograph,Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress
Fires near this place
36 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 36 fires within 5 miles of Del Muerto between 1994 and 2019, burning about 99 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 12 were 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 14 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 12 |
| Natural | 3 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Other causes | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 September 2006 | Other causes | under an acre | Canyon De Chelly National Monument | WHITE HOUSE TRAIL |
| 19 August 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | DEL MUERTO 1 |
| 8 July 2005 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | TWINTRAILS |
| 5 July 2016 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Canyon De Chelly National Monument | TRASH FIRE |
| 24 July 2002 | Natural | under an acre | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | NEDELMERTO |
| 2 July 2017 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | TSEGI |
| 2 July 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 18 acres | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | CNDECHELLY |
| 19 July 2008 | Natural | under an acre | Canyon De Chelly National Monument | JUNCTION OVERLOOK |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Del Muerto: 2 unknowns. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Uranium. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uranium Deposit | Uranium | Unknown | ||
| Zealy-Tso Drilling Block | Uranium | Unknown |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junction Overlook | 4.2 miles | 17 | |
| Chinle | 6.2 miles | 15 | |
| Flat Rock | 13.7 miles | 15 | |
| White Clay | 14.5 miles | 18 | |
| Many Farms | 14.8 miles | 15 | |
| Coyote Springs | 15.4 miles | 14 | |
| Sehili | 16.0 miles | 17 | |
| Lower Wheatfields | 16.3 miles | 18 |
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 Del Muerto | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q5801605 | 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 25262. 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.







