Picacho, Arizona
19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1934 and the latest in 1996. It stands in the Florence census division. It lies in ZIP code area 85141. The Survey maps it on the Newman Peak quadrangle. 250 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,614 feet above sea level.
On record in Picacho
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 1 record
Population over time
3 figuresPicacho fell from 521 to 250 between 2000 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 521 | |
| 2010 | 471 | -50 (-10%) |
| 2020 | 250 | -221 (-47%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 19 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.
- 1934 USGS Newman Peak quadrangle1:125000
- 1947 USGS Red Rock quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Tucson quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Tucson quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Tucson quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Tucson quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Red Rock quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1964 USGS Tucson quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Newman Peak quadrangle1:24000
- 1994 USGS Casa Grande quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
- 1996 USGS Newman Peak quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
310 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 310 fires within 5 miles of Picacho between 1992 and 2020, burning about 3,877 acres in total. None started naturally. 9 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 201 |
| Debris and open burning | 31 |
| Smoking | 30 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 20 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 15 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 9 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | not named |
| 6 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | ELEVEN MILE |
| 3 September 1993 | Smoking | under an acre | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | not named |
| 23 September 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | VAN DAMME |
| 2 September 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Eloy Fire District | NOT NAMED |
| 2 September 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.6 acres | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | MCCLELLAN |
| 17 September 1996 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | not named |
| 15 September 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | RED ROCK ROAD |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
9 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Picacho: 4 past producers, 3 occurrences, 2 prospects. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Copper, Zeolites, Lead. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gibson Claims | Copper, Lead | Prospect | ||
| Picacho Reservoir Analcime | Zeolites | Occurrence | Analcime | |
| Picacho Reservoir Analcime Occur. | Zeolites | Prospect | ||
| Unnamed Prospect | Copper | Occurrence | Vein | |
| Unnamed Prospect | Copper | Occurrence | Vein | |
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
3 since 2014Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Picacho in 3 storm reports between 2014 and 2025: 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 1 flash flood. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Picacho | $500,000 | Thunderstorm winds damaged 6 warehouses at the cotton-storage facility STS Land Holding in Eloy. Four warehouses were listed as a 30 to 50 percent loss. The other 2 buildings were still marginally usable. The warehouses, covered in tin, were mostly empty at the time. A few minutes later, 39 out of 107 cars on a Union Pacific train were derailed near the Interstate 10 Picacho exit. The freight containers were empty at the time. No one was injured. Extensive damage to the tracks also resulted causing the rail line to remain out of service until repairs were completed, three days later. |
| October 2025 | Flash Flood | Picacho | $500 | Webcam shows water over bankfull at the McClellan Wash at the Central Arizona Project Wash. |
| October 2022 | Hail | Picacho | - | 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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eloy | 4.2 miles | 19 | |
| Wymola | 6.3 miles | 19 | |
| Friendly Corners | 7.4 miles | 19 | |
| Toltec | 8.2 miles | 19 | |
| Arizona City | 9.7 miles | 20 | |
| La Palma | 11.3 miles | 21 | |
| Laguna | 11.4 miles | 19 | |
| Eleven Mile Corner | 11.9 miles | 21 |
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 Picacho | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q6647057 | 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 9393. 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.











