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Houck, Arizona

15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1982. It stands in the Fort Defiance census division. It lies in ZIP code area 86506. The Survey maps it on the Houck quadrangle. 886 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,035 feet above sea level.

Houck within Apache County

On record in Houck

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 2 records

Population over time

2 figures

Houck fell from 1,024 to 886 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.

YearPeople Change
20101,024
2020886-138 (-13%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 15 printed sheets

Matched 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.

Fires near this place

137 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 137 fires within 5 miles of Houck between 1992 and 2019, burning about 3,530 acres in total. 41 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
Debris and open burning63
Natural41
Recreation and ceremony7
Missing data/not specified/undetermined5
Smoking5
Equipment and vehicle use4
Misuse of fire by a minor4
Railroad operations and maintenance3
Fireworks2
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Arson/incendiarism1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
8 September 2004Debris and open burningunder an acreNavajo Region Fire and Aviation ManagementQUERINO 5
25 September 1992Debris and open burning14 acresNavajo Region Fire and Aviation ManagementHAWTHORNE
15 September 2004Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreArizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State OfficeCEDAR POINT
13 September 1995Smokingunder an acreNavajo Region Fire and Aviation ManagementBURNTWATER
1 September 2008Debris and open burningunder an acreNavajo Region Fire and Aviation ManagementHOUCK 2
9 August 2009Debris and open burning5.2 acresNavajo Region Fire and Aviation ManagementQUERINO 1
6 August 2000Debris and open burningunder an acreNavajo Region Fire and Aviation ManagementDUMP 5
4 August 1995Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreNavajo Region Fire and Aviation ManagementHOUCK3

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Apache County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 12 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 12 workings within 5 miles of Houck: 7 producers, 3 occurrences, 2 past producers. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Silica, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Bentonite, Geothermal. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Bleaching Clay DepositClayOccurrence
Name UnknownGeothermalProducer
Name UnknownGeothermalProducer
Bentonite Pits Near AllentownBentonitePast ProducerSedimentary
Bentonitic Clay DepositBentoniteOccurrence
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSand and Gravel
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Houck OperationSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Houck Silica Operation MineSilicaProducer
Houck Silica Operation PlantSilicaProducer

Every working recorded in Apache County

Storms near this place

3 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Houck in 3 storm reports in 2018: 1 heavy rain, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2018Heavy RainHouck-Heavy rain over Interstate 40 between Sanders and Lupton caused up to one foot of water to accumulate on the road (between mile markers 354 and 359). Initial reports indicated that several cars were stopped along the highway. However, DPS only saw one car stopped when they arrived and the water had receded.
August 2018Flash FloodHouck-Swift water rescue was conducted around 350 PM to rescue a driver in 2.5 to 3 feet of water on Interstate 40 due to flooding of Black Creek near Houck. The I-40 frontage road (dirt) on the north side was impassible due to flooding through at least 630 PM.
October 2018Thunderstorm WindHouck-An Arizona Department of Transportation wind sensor on Interstate 40 near Lupton reported a wind gust of 58 MPH at 632 PM. A cold front was moving across the area and there were thunderstorms in the vicinity at that time.

Every storm recorded in Apache County

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 PlaceDistance Sheets
Allentown2.6 miles15
Sanders8.1 miles15
Chetco8.2 miles15
Pine Springs9.3 miles15
Lupton9.5 miles15
Chambers13.6 miles15
Oak Springs13.9 miles15
Wide Ruins18.0 miles15

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 HouckAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1895331The 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 24465. 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.