BlockBefore

White Mesa, Utah

20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1989. It stands in the Blanding census division. It lies in ZIP code area 84511. It lies near Road Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Big Bench quadrangle. 178 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 5,305 feet above sea level.

White Mesa within San Juan County

Population over time

3 figures

White Mesa fell from 277 to 178 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.

YearPeople Change
2000277
2010242-35 (-13%)
2020178-64 (-26%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

11 surveys from 20 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

54 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 54 fires within 5 miles of White Mesa between 1992 and 2020, burning about 474 acres in total. 14 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined21
Natural14
Smoking6
Arson/incendiarism5
Debris and open burning5
Equipment and vehicle use2
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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
6 September 1992Arson/incendiarismunder an acreUte Mountain Ute AgencyCAESPOOCH
6 September 1992Debris and open burningunder an acreUte Mountain Ute AgencyFIDDLERS
6 September 1992Debris and open burningunder an acreUte Mountain Ute AgencyLEHI
6 September 1992Debris and open burningunder an acreUte Mountain Ute AgencyLEHI 2
5 September 1992Smokingunder an acreUte Mountain Ute AgencyWHITEMESA
4 September 1995Arson/incendiarism2.0 acresUte Mountain Ute AgencyMESAVIEW
4 September 1995Arson/incendiarism30 acresUte Mountain Ute AgencyBEAVERLN
4 September 1995Smokingunder an acreUte Mountain Ute AgencyANTHILL

Every fire recorded in San Juan County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 14 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 14 workings within 5 miles of White Mesa: 12 past producers, 1 occurrence, 1 unknown. None of them still produces. 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Tree MineUranium, VanadiumPast ProducerSurface/Underground
Maxine 2&3UraniumPast ProducerUnderground
Red HotUraniumPast Producer
School Section 32UraniumUnknown
TreeUraniumOccurrence
TreeUraniumPast ProducerSurface
Gravel DepositSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerLimestone, Sandstone
Gravel DepositSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerLimestone, Sandstone
Gravel DepositSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerLimestone, Sandstone
Gravel DepositSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in San Juan 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
Blanding10.9 miles21
Bluff13.3 miles22
Montezuma Creek15.6 miles20
Indian Village16.6 miles27
Tselakai Dezza19.6 miles20
White Rock Curve Village19.8 miles19
Red Lake Village20.0 miles19
Aneth22.8 miles18

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 White MesaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2620309The 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 1852450. 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.