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Aztec, New Mexico

16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1889 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Aztec census division. It lies in ZIP code area 87410. It stands on Estes Arroyo. The Survey maps it on the Aztec quadrangle. 6,201 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 5,646 feet above sea level.

Aztec within San Juan County

On record in Aztec

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 12 of 18 shown

Every listing in San Juan County

Surveyed buildings and structures 2 records

Population over time

2 figures

Aztec fell from 6,763 to 6,201 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
20106,763
20206,201-562 (-8%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 16 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.

Photographs

2 photographs,

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

Aztec Ruins, Great Kiva, New Mexico 44 near junction of U.S. 550, Aztec, San Juan County, NM
Aztec Ruins, Great Kiva, New Mexico 44 near junction of U.S. 550, Aztec, San Juan County, NM
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress
Aztec Ruins, West Ruin, New Mexico 44 near junction of U.S. 550, Aztec, San Juan County, NM
Aztec Ruins, West Ruin, New Mexico 44 near junction of U.S. 550, Aztec, San Juan County, NM
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress

Fires near this place

71 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 71 fires within 5 miles of Aztec between 1994 and 2020, burning about 96 acres in total. 33 started naturally. 3 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
Natural33
Debris and open burning15
Missing data/not specified/undetermined9
Misuse of fire by a minor5
Equipment and vehicle use4
Arson/incendiarism3
Smoking1
Recreation and ceremony1

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
18 September 2001Naturalunder an acreJicarilla AgencyHURRY UP
5 August 2001Naturalunder an acreFarmington Field OfficeFARMER
4 August 2016Naturalunder an acreFarmington Field Office2575
3 August 2000Naturalunder an acreFarmington Field OfficePOTTER
23 August 2013Naturalunder an acreFarmington Field OfficeDRY WALL
22 August 2000Naturalunder an acreFarmington Field OfficeMAILBOX
22 August 2000Naturalunder an acreFarmington Field OfficeHAMPTON2
10 August 2004Naturalunder an acreFarmington Field OfficeCAMPBELL

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in San Juan County

Mines and quarries near this place

6 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Aztec: 4 unknowns, 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Gypsum-Anhydrite. 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
Aztec Gypsum ProspectGypsum-AnhydriteUnknown
Airport PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Materials PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Materials PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Materials PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Spencerville PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown

Every working recorded in San Juan County

Storms near this place

5 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Aztec in 5 storm reports between 1997 and 2017: 2 flash flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail. 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
August 2015Flash FloodAztec$1,000,000The Blanco Arroyo overflowed its banks and, combined with heavy rain across the area, led to significant flash flooding. Firefighters rescued a few individuals from the roofs of their homes, otherwise no major injuries or fatalities were reported. Several homes were reportedly shifted off their foundation and a propane tank at one of those homes was swept away in the flood waters. Multiple classrooms were damaged at three area schools, causing all schools to be closed on the 27th and one school, Lydia Rippey Elementary, to be closed on the 28th. The Aztec Municipal Golf Course at Hidden Valley was closed until further notice due to damages incurred from the flooding. A large rock slide closed Navajo Road 36 at mile marker 28, with other smaller road closures reported around Aztec. Measured rainfall in the area ranges from an inch to a little over an inch and a half.
August 2015Thunderstorm WindAztec$150,000Damaging winds caused multiple trees to fall over, landing on houses and power lines. This caused power outages for portions of Aztec, Flora Vista, and Crouch Mesa.
May 2017Thunderstorm WindAztec$20,000Power poles blown over onto roadway in Aztec. Minor damage reported to several vehicles.
August 1997Flash FloodAztec-Three to 6 inches of mud and debris covered parts of Highway 550 in Aztec following heavy rain of 1 to 2 inches on the mesa above town near the airport. Several other city streets were temporarily closed by the runoff.
October 2006HailAztec-no account filed

Every storm recorded in San Juan County

Newspapers printed here

1,032 digitised pages

1 paper published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 251 issues, 1,032 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.

NewspaperPublished
The San Juan County Index1890 to 19??

What the paper printed

7,806 words

Front pages of the local paper, read from the Library of Congress scans: 5 issues spread across its run from 1890 to 1912, 7,806 words in total. Each is reproduced on its own page, exactly as the recogniser returned it.

These pages read less well than anything else here, and the number is worth stating: about three words in four come through cleanly, against nine in ten for the building records. An 1896 broadsheet sets eight-point type in seven columns on microfilm, which is the hardest thing in this archive to read by machine. We tested our own recognisers against the Library's and they were not better, so the Library's text is what appears, with the wholly unreadable columns removed. Read it as a guide to what the paper covered, and follow the link to the scan before quoting anything.

IssuePaper Length
1890-07-24The San Juan County Index1,494 words
1899-05-26The San Juan County Index831 words
1902-12-19The San Juan County Index836 words
1902-12-26The San Juan County Index1,186 words
1912-10-18The San Juan County Index3,459 words

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
Spencerville3.5 miles19
Center Point4.5 miles16
Flora Vista5.0 miles19
Inca6.0 miles16
Crouch Mesa7.7 miles17
Bloomfield7.7 miles16
Lee Acres8.8 miles17
Angustura9.2 miles16

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 AztecAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q794149The 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 898624. 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.