Montezuma Creek, Utah
20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1989. It stands in the Casa del Eco Mesa-White Mesa census division. It lies in ZIP code area 84534. It stands on Montezuma Creek. The Survey maps it on the Montezuma Creek quadrangle. 284 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,416 feet above sea level.
Population over time
3 figuresMontezuma Creek fell from 507 to 284 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 | 507 | |
| 2010 | 335 | -172 (-34%) |
| 2020 | 284 | -51 (-15%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 20 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 Cortez quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Montezuma Creek quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1966 USGS Cortez quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS Bluff quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1989 USGS Montezuma Creek quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
12 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Montezuma Creek between 1995 and 2018, burning about 305 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 5 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 July 1998 | Debris and open burning | 244 acres | Moab Field Office | MONTEZUMA |
| 4 July 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 40 acres | Utah Division Forestry Fire State Lands | FRED JOHNSON |
| 27 July 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | MONTEZUMA |
| 14 July 2005 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Utah Division Forestry Fire State Lands | RESOLUTE |
| 13 July 2017 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | MONTEZUMA CREEK 2 |
| 10 July 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management | MONTEZUMA CREEK |
| 7 June 1995 | Natural | under an acre | Moab Field Office | COYOTE |
| 27 May 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Utah Division Forestry Fire State Lands | NTUA WATERLINE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
4 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Montezuma Creek: 2 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gravel Deposit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Quartzite, Sandstone | |
| Gravel Deposit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Gravel Deposit #19035 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | Quartzite, Sandstone | |
| Utah Dept of Highways Pit No 19035 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
5 since 2013Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Montezuma Creek in 5 storm reports between 2013 and 2025: 2 tornado, 1 debris flow, 1 hail, 1 heavy rain. 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 2013 | Hail | Montezuma Creek | $20,000 | Golf ball sized hail broke windows and windshields, among other damage, along Red Mesa Road. |
| September 2025 | Tornado (EF2) | Montezuma Creek | - | The second tornado prompted a damage survey conducted by local emergency|management and Navajo Nation emergency management, along with local law enforcement. The data from the survey was relayed to the National Weather Service: storm damage was concentrated on an area centered near 37.33071N / 109.3259W and included; a home completely destroyed, two (2) 800-gallon water barrels were missing, a three-bedroom home was completely destroyed, a sheep corral and barn were destroyed, two (2) horse trailers were damaged, a cow corral, along with damage to three (3) vehicles. |
| September 2025 | Tornado (EFU) | Montezuma Creek | - | The first, of the two tornadoes, was short lived as noted by a resident's video footage|narration, along with information from local emergency management and law|enforcement. |
| July 2018 | Heavy Rain | Montezuma Creek | - | A minor debris flow occurred over SR 162, approximately 5 miles west-northwest of Montezuma Creek. Traffic was not impacted. Radar estimates show half an inch to an inch of rain fell from thunderstorms in the area around that time. |
| January 2013 | Debris Flow | Montezuma Creek | - | Local law enforcement officers reported boulders and water over the roadway along highway 262 between Aneth and Montezuma Creek. These slides were the result of heavy rainfall in the area. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| White Rock Curve Village | 4.3 miles | 19 | |
| Red Lake Village | 5.0 miles | 19 | |
| Aneth | 8.0 miles | 18 | |
| White Mesa Village | 9.6 miles | 19 | |
| Bluff | 12.3 miles | 22 | |
| White Mesa | 15.6 miles | 20 | |
| Tselakai Dezza | 15.8 miles | 20 | |
| Little Water | 16.8 miles | 20 |
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 Montezuma Creek | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2337149 | 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 1430435. 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.










