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Mackay, Idaho

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1935 and the latest in 1991. It stands in the Mackay census division. It lies in ZIP code area 83251. It lies near Rio Grande Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Mackay quadrangle. 439 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 5,906 feet above sea level.

Mackay within Custer County

On record in Mackay

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

Mackay fell from 517 to 439 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
2010517
2020439-78 (-15%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 14 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

11 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 11 fires within 5 miles of Mackay between 1993 and 2015, burning about 121 acres in total. 5 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
Natural5
Debris and open burning2
Smoking1
Other causes1
Recreation and ceremony1
Fireworks1

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
21 September 2002Other causes73 acresTwin Falls DistrictCLIFF
15 August 2000Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreIdaho Falls DistrictMACKAY RES
4 July 2013Natural40 acresSalmon-Challis National ForestCLIFF
4 July 2007Fireworksunder an acreTwin Falls DistrictMACKEY
31 July 2012Naturalunder an acreSalmon-Challis National ForestCLIFF
31 July 2002Debris and open burning1.5 acresSalmon-Challis National ForestANDERSON
30 July 1994Naturalunder an acreSalmon-Challis National Forestnot named
22 July 2015Natural5.0 acresTwin Falls DistrictMINE HILL

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Custer County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 25 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 25 workings within 5 miles of Mackay: 11 past producers, 7 prospects, 3 producers, 2 occurrences. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Lead, Silver, Copper, Copper, Gold. 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
Black Daisy MineSilver, Lead, Gold, Copper, ZincPast ProducerVein
Champion GroupLead, Silver, Copper, Zinc, IronPast Producer
Champion MineCopper, Lead, Gold, Zinc, SilverProducer1895
Doughboy MineLead, Silver, Zinc, Gold, CopperPast Producer
Easlie Group MineLead, SilverPast ProducerGalena
Empire MineGold, Copper, Silver, Zinc, Molybdenum, Tungsten, LeadPast Producer1884, 1902
Grand Prize MineLead, Silver, Gold, CopperPast ProducerVein
Granite GroupIron, Silver, Copper, GoldProducerHematite
Horseshoe MineCopper, Silver, Lead, Gold, ZincPast ProducerChalcopyrite, Galena, Malachite, Marmatite, Sphalerite
Houston Clay OccurrenceClayOccurrenceSurface

Every working recorded in Custer County

Storms near this place

9 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Mackay in 9 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 4 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 flood, 1 tornado. 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
June 2023FloodMackay$20,000Forest Service road 135 washed away near the intersection of Bear Creek and Antelope Pass Roads. Rainfall combined with snow melt continued to create flooding in the Salmon Challis National Forest.
June 2018FloodMackay$10,000The Big Lost Wood River flooded at Leslie on Highway 93. Two homes were affected at the foundation with flooding. They were upstream of the Highway 93 bridge over the Big Lost River.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindMackay$2,000A large tree was blown down on a house with minor roof damage southeast of Mackay.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindMackay$1,000Power lines downed by thunderstorm winds just north of Mackay closing roads.
August 2014Tornado (EF0)Mackay-Multiple photographs of funnel cloud with a brief touch down 2 miles southeast of Mackay.
July 2007HailMackay-One inch hail fell four miles east southeast of Mackay.
August 2024HailMackay-no account filed
August 2024HailMackay-no account filed
August 1997HailMackay-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Custer 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
Houston2.9 miles14
White Knob (historical)3.4 miles14
Cliff (historical)4.4 miles14
Rothas4.5 miles14
Alder City (historical)5.7 miles14
Leslie8.4 miles10
Grouse15.6 miles12
Lost River15.7 miles12

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 MackayAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1515321The 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 397886. 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.