Sawmill, Arizona
19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Fort Defiance census division. It lies in ZIP code area 86504. The Survey maps it on the Sawmill quadrangle. 564 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,975 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresSawmill fell from 748 to 564 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 | 748 | |
| 2020 | 564 | -184 (-25%) |
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.
- 1886 USGS Fort Defiance quadrangle1:250000
- 1892 USGS Fort Defiance quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
- 1954 USGS Gallup quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS Buell Park quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS Zith-Tusayan Butte 1 NW quadrangle1:24000
- 1958 USGS Gallup quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Gallup quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Gallup quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Gallup quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Sawmill quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Ganado quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
178 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 178 fires within 5 miles of Sawmill between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,329 acres in total. 92 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 |
|---|---|
| Natural | 92 |
| Debris and open burning | 44 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 9 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 8 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 7 |
| Smoking | 5 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Fireworks | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Other causes | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 1998 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | RT07W#2 |
| 8 September 2009 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | FLUTED ROCK LAKE 1 |
| 7 September 2020 | Other causes | under an acre | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | SAWMILL 3 |
| 7 September 2007 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | FLUTED ROCK 2 |
| 3 September 2000 | Smoking | under an acre | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | SAWMILL 2 |
| 29 September 2000 | Natural | under an acre | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | POWERLINE |
| 25 September 2013 | Natural | under an acre | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | WHITE CLAY 1 |
| 2 September 1996 | Natural | under an acre | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | 9300 WEST |
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 Sawmill: 1 unknown, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Semiprecious Gemstone, Olivine, Garnet, Gemstone. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buell Park | Semiprecious Gemstone | Unknown | ||
| Buell Park | Olivine, Garnet, Gemstone | Producer | Peridot, Pyrope |
Storms near this place
1 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sawmill in 1 storm report in 1998: 1 funnel cloud. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 1998 | Funnel Cloud | Sawmill | - | A Chinle Police Department officer observed a funnel cloud between Fluted Rock and Sawmill. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Milkwater | 10.8 miles | 19 | |
| White Clay | 11.6 miles | 18 | |
| Fort Defiance | 11.9 miles | 18 | |
| Bonita Trading Post | 12.5 miles | 18 | |
| Nazlini | 15.0 miles | 19 | |
| Woodspring Trading Post | 15.1 miles | 19 | |
| Window Rock | 16.4 miles | 18 | |
| Wood Springs | 16.9 miles | 19 |
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 Sawmill | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1894710 | 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 10975. 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.










