Bluff, Utah
22 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1997. It stands in the Blanding census division. It lies in ZIP code area 84512. It lies near Calf Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Bluff quadrangle. 240 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,324 feet above sea level.
On record in Bluff
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 7 records
Joseph Frederick Adams Houselisted 1985
Bluff Historic Districtlisted 1995
James Bean Decker Houselisted 1983
Jens Nielson Houselisted 1982
Lemuel H. Redd Jr. Houselisted 1983
John Albert Scorup Houselisted 1983- St. Christopher's Episcopal Missionlisted 2002
Surveyed buildings and structures 1 record
- Hole-in-the-Rock Trail, Running From Bluff Vicinity to Escalante, Garfield County, Blufffederal building survey, 8 photographs
Population over time
3 figuresBluff fell from 320 to 240 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 | 320 | |
| 2010 | 258 | -62 (-19%) |
| 2020 | 240 | -18 (-7%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
12 surveys from 22 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.
- 1886 USGS Abajo quadrangle1:250000
- 1892 USGS Abajo quadrangle1:250000
- 1893 USGS Abajo quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1956 USGS Cortez quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Cortez quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Cortez quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Bluff quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1962 USGS Cortez quadrangle1:250000
- 1966 USGS Cortez quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS Bluff quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1989 USGS Bluff quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1997 USGS Bluff quadrangle1:24000
What the histories say of this town
283 words1 chapter about Bluff from the published histories of the county, public domain and reproduced complete.
| Chapter | From | Length |
|---|---|---|
| San Juan County, Utah | San Juan County, Utah (1910) | 283 words |
Photographs
1 photograph,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.
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress
Fires near this place
14 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 14 fires within 5 miles of Bluff between 1993 and 2020, burning about 12 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 1 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 | 6 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 2000 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Utah Division Forestry Fire State Lands | EVAPORATION |
| 8 July 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Moab Field Office | PUMP |
| 6 July 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Utah Division Forestry Fire State Lands | BLUFF |
| 30 July 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Moab Field Office | SAND |
| 12 July 2018 | Natural | 1.2 acres | Southeast Area | BLUFF |
| 10 July 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Moab Field Office | BRIDGE |
| 8 June 1998 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Utah Division Forestry Fire State Lands | WATERMELON |
| 7 June 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Moab Field Office | HIGHWAY 191 MM 21 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
8 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Bluff: 6 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Uranium, Uranium, Vanadium. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hole In Rock Mine | Uranium, Vanadium | Past Producer | Carnotite | |
| Hole In the Rock Mine | Uranium | Past Producer | Surface, Underground | |
| Gravel Deposit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | Unconsolidated Sediments | |
| Gravel Deposit #19038 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Surface | |
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Quartzite | |
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Utah Dept of Highways Pit No 19038 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
16 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bluff in 16 storm reports between 1997 and 2020: 4 heavy rain, 4 flash flood, 2 hail, 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2003 | Flash Flood | Bluff | $1,000,000 | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Flash Flood | Bluff | $30,000 | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bluff | $12,000 | no account filed |
| August 2013 | Flash Flood | Bluff | $10,000 | Rainfall through the day, with 1.85 inches recorded between 2 pm and 3 pm, produced flash flooding from the town of Bluff to Sand Island and along Highway 191. Sand bagging was needed in town to protect structures. Minor damage was reported. |
| June 2020 | Hail | Bluff | - | A severe thunderstorm produced large hail measured to be the size of ping-pong balls in Bluff. |
| July 2018 | Heavy Rain | Bluff | - | Thunderstorms produced 0.88 of an inch of rain within a couple of hours. Minor flooding was reported. |
| August 2016 | Heavy Rain | Bluff | - | Near Bluff 0.50 of an inch of rain fell within a 10 minute period. |
| September 2012 | Debris Flow | Bluff | - | Heavy rainfall resulted in a flow of mud and water across Highway 191 approximately 8 miles north of Bluff. |
| July 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bluff | - | Strong thunderstorm winds blew down some old trees and broke off large branches from other trees throughout the town of Bluff. |
| July 2008 | Heavy Rain | Bluff | - | Minor flooding occurred around Bluff and covered a portion of Highway 163 about 3 miles east of Bluff. A spotter reported 0.53 inches of rainfall in 45 minutes. |
| October 1998 | Heavy Rain | Bluff | - | A thunderstorm produced brief heavy rain in Bluff, with 0.50 inches falling in 15 minutes. This produced some minor street flooding. |
| September 2005 | Funnel Cloud | Bluff | - | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Flash Flood | Bluff | - | no account filed |
| September 2002 | Flood | Bluff | - | no account filed |
| September 2002 | Flood | Bluff | - | no account filed |
| September 1997 | Hail | Bluff | - | 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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tselakai Dezza | 6.3 miles | 20 | |
| Montezuma Creek | 12.3 miles | 20 | |
| Little Water | 12.5 miles | 20 | |
| White Mesa | 13.3 miles | 20 | |
| Red Lake Village | 13.5 miles | 19 | |
| White Rock Curve Village | 14.6 miles | 19 | |
| White Mesa Village | 17.7 miles | 19 | |
| Mexican Hat | 19.0 miles | 21 |
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 Bluff | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q886112 | 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 1425842. 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.











