Thatcher, Arizona
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1997. It stands in the Safford census division. It lies in ZIP code area 85552. It stands on Frye Creek. The Survey maps it on the Thatcher quadrangle. 5,231 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,910 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresThatcher grew from 4,865 to 5,231 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 | 4,865 | |
| 2020 | 5,231 | +366 (+8%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 13 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.
- 1954 USGS Silver City quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Silver City quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Thatcher quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Silver City quadrangle1:250000
- 1985 USGS Thatcher quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1994 USGS Safford quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1997 USGS Thatcher quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
17 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 17 fires within 5 miles of Thatcher between 1994 and 2020, burning about 401 acres in total. None started naturally. None 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12 |
| Debris and open burning | 3 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Gila District Office | R/M |
| 6 July 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7.0 acres | Gila District Office | RIVER |
| 2 July 1994 | Fireworks | 5.0 acres | Gila District Office | BONITA II |
| 5 June 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7.0 acres | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | SATURE |
| 23 June 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Gila District Office | WATSON |
| 21 June 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Clay Springs/Pinedale Fire Department | not named |
| 6 May 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Sunsites-Pearce Fire District | not named |
| 6 May 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | HOLLYWOOD |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 12 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 12 workings within 5 miles of Thatcher: 5 prospects, 3 past producers, 2 unknowns, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Copper, 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mt Graham Well | Geothermal | Unknown | ||
| Rhoades-Mathews | Bentonite | Prospect | ||
| Rhodes-Mathews | Bentonite | Occurrence | ||
| Abeyta Properties | Copper | Prospect | ||
| Cobre Claims | Copper | Prospect | ||
| Dixie Claims | Copper | Prospect | ||
| Norman Property | Copper | Prospect | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
7 since 2003Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Thatcher in 7 storm reports between 2003 and 2019: 4 flash flood, 1 hail, 1 heavy rain, 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2018 | Flash Flood | Thatcher | $250,000 | During the late afternoon and evening 1.5-2.5 inches caused flash flooding in Thatcher. Two homes flooded and roads were flooded in Quail Ridge as the drainage canal overflowed. Farther north, several of the dorm rooms at the Eastern Arizona College|Campus, several of the Howards Place apartments on High School Avenue also suffered flood damage. |
| August 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Thatcher | $20,000 | Thunderstorm winds caused minor roof damage to several structures in Thatcher and Pima, and downed four power poles east of Fort Thomas. The wind knocked a travel trailer off its block, which in turn damaged a nearby cinder block wall. |
| July 2004 | Heavy Rain | Thatcher | $10,000 | Heavy rainfall from several thunderstorms caused the buildup of rain on the roof of a museum in Thatcher. The roof collapsed around 10:30 pm that night. |
| August 2019 | Flash Flood | Thatcher | $6,000 | One inch of rain in less than an hour caused flash flooding of several roads in the Safford area. One vehicle was swept away near First Avenue in Thatcher. The wash intersecting Lebanon Road and 191 also overflowed. |
| May 2005 | Flash Flood | Thatcher | - | Noon Creek overtopped highway 366 leaving debris on the roadway. The flash flood resulted from one inch of rain that fell in 20 minutes at the Noon Creek ALERT rain gage. 1.61 inches of rain fell between 4:00 pm MST and 5:00 pm MST at Noon Creek. |
| July 2004 | Flash Flood | Thatcher | - | Law enforcement reported that there were several roads closed in Thatcher due to flooding, and there was a significant amount of mud across Highway 366 below Turkey Flat. |
| July 2003 | Hail | Thatcher | - | 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.
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 Thatcher | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q512101 | 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 12277. 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.






