Mehama, Oregon
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1951 and the latest in 1991. It stands in the East Marion census division. It lies in ZIP code area 97384. It stands on Little North Santiam River. The Survey maps it on the Lyons quadrangle. 317 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 633 feet above sea level.
Population over time
3 figuresMehama grew from 283 to 317 between 2000 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 283 | |
| 2010 | 292 | +9 (+3%) |
| 2020 | 317 | +25 (+9%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 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.
- 1951 USGS Lyons quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1953 USGS Salem quadrangle1:250000
- 1954 USGS Salem quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Salem quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Salem quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Salem quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS North Santiam River quadrangle1:100000
- 1985 USGS Lyons quadrangle1:24000
- 1991 USGS North Santiam River quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
139 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 139 fires within 5 miles of Mehama between 1992 and 2020, burning about 331 acres in total. 12 started naturally. 5 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 41 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 29 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 20 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 15 |
| Natural | 12 |
| Smoking | 5 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 5 |
| Other causes | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 4 |
| Fireworks | 3 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 7.2 acres | Oregon Department of Forestry Salem Headquarters | FIR GROVE FRIE |
| 9 September 2009 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Santiam Unit | BRANCH LANE |
| 9 September 1998 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Northwest Oregon District | COX CREEK |
| 8 September 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Oregon Department of Forestry Salem Headquarters | SAW FIRE |
| 8 September 2013 | Natural | under an acre | Oregon Department of Forestry Salem Headquarters | HOOK AND EYE LANE FIRE |
| 8 September 2008 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1.0 acres | Northwest Oregon District | LITTLE N FORK MP 3 |
| 7 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Oregon Department of Forestry Salem Headquarters | FIR GROVE |
| 7 September 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Santiam Unit | OLD MEHEMA |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 20 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 20 workings within 5 miles of Mehama: 8 past producers, 8 producers, 4 occurrences. 8 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone, Manganese. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bula Mine | Gold | Occurrence | Gold, Pyrite | |
| Matheny | Aluminum, Clay | Occurrence | ||
| Jaeger | Manganese | Occurrence | ||
| Jaeger | Manganese | Past Producer | ||
| Matheny | Clay | Occurrence | ||
| Cornfordh Site | Stone | Past Producer | ||
| Lyons | Stone | Past Producer | ||
| Quarry | Stone | Past Producer | ||
| Cornfordh Site | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Hagel Rock Pit | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Storms near this place
1 since 2011Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Mehama in 1 storm report in 2011: 1 flood. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2011 | Flood | Mehama | - | Heavy rain combined with snowmelt runoff to produce flooding on the North Santiam River. The North Santiam River near Mehama crested at 11.7 feet on January 16th at 17:00 PST. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hullt (historical) | 7.5 miles | 13 | |
| Stayton | 9.3 miles | 16 | |
| Drake Crossing | 9.6 miles | 13 | |
| Sublimity | 9.7 miles | 16 | |
| Gates | 11.0 miles | 17 | |
| Elkhorn Woods | 11.7 miles | 17 | |
| Ale (historical) | 12.4 miles | 16 | |
| Clymer (historical) | 12.4 miles | 16 |
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 Mehama | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2240924 | 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 1124044. 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.








