Vaya Chin, Arizona
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1996. It stands in the Tohono O'odham Nation census division. It lies in ZIP code area 85321. The Survey maps it on the Vaya Chin quadrangle. It stands 2,133 feet above sea level.
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 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.
- 1953 USGS Ajo quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Ajo quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Ajo quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Ajo quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Ajo quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Cimarron Peak quadrangle1:62500
- 1967 USGS Ajo quadrangle1:250000
- 1980 USGS Ajo quadrangle1:100000
- 1982 USGS Ajo quadrangle1:250000
- 1990 USGS Vaya Chin quadrangle1:24000
- 1996 USGS Vaya Chin quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
10 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 10 fires within 5 miles of Vaya Chin between 1993 and 2020, burning about 31 acres in total. 2 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 | 5 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 September 2002 | Natural | under an acre | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | CHARCOAL |
| 7 August 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | GRANDE FIRE |
| 11 July 2020 | Natural | 20 acres | Papago Agency | CIMMARRON |
| 25 May 2003 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | MOTORCROSS |
| 25 May 1993 | Smoking | under an acre | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | not named |
| 17 May 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | THORNTON |
| 1 April 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | OLD MINER FIRE |
| 14 March 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Papago Agency | ROUTE 34 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Vaya Chin: 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown | Geothermal | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
4 since 2011Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Vaya Chin in 4 storm reports between 2011 and 2019: 3 thunderstorm wind, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vaya Chin | $75,000 | Tohono O'odham Nation Emergency Managers reported damaging winds in the Vaya Chin and Hickiwan villages. Several trailers and a home was damaged. One trailer received major structural damage and another trailer was completely destroyed. The homeowners were not home at the time. A vacant trailer was also destroyed. In addition, a traditional style home received significant roof damage and a HUD (Housing and Urban Development) home also received roof damage. |
| August 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vaya Chin | $25,000 | Thunderstorm winds caused minor damage to homes and trailers in Vaya Chin. One home's roof was blown off, allowing heavy rainfall to damage the interior of the home. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vaya Chin | $10,000 | Thunderstorm winds flipped over a trailer home and downed several trees west of Santa Rosa. |
| July 2019 | Funnel Cloud | Vaya Chin | - | A Southwest Airlines pilot reported a funnel cloud in a PIREP in a storm to the south of the flight path over the Tohono O'odham Nation. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oit Ihuk | 4.8 miles | 14 | |
| Hickiwan | 8.0 miles | 13 | |
| Komak Wuacho | 8.5 miles | 14 | |
| Ventana | 9.3 miles | 14 | |
| Tatai Toak | 9.6 miles | 13 | |
| Emika | 10.3 miles | 13 | |
| Noipa Kam | 10.4 miles | 14 | |
| Wahak Hotrontk | 11.5 miles | 14 |
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 Vaya Chin | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q38249316 | 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 13199. 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.










