Bluff is a
census-designated placeA census-designated place is a type of place identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages...
(CDP) in
San Juan CountySan Juan County is a county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the largest county in terms of physical area in the state. In the 2000 census its population was 14,413, which by 2005 is estimated to have decreased to 14,104...
,
UtahUtah is a western state of the United States. It was the 45th state admitted to the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80 percent of Utah's 2,736,424 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering around Salt Lake City. In contrast, vast expanses of the state are nearly uninhabited, making...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The population was 320 at the
2000 censusThe Twenty-Second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...
.
Bluff is located at (37.283696, -109.552871), in the scenic and very sparsely-populated southeastern Utah canyonlands of the
Colorado PlateauThe Colorado Plateau, also called the Colorado Plateau Province, is a physiographic region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. The province covers an area of 337,000 km² within western Colorado, northwestern New Mexico,...
.
According to the
United States Census BureauThe United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data. As part of the United States Department of Commerce, the Census Bureau serves as the leading source of quality data about...
, the CDP has a total area of 22.6 square miles (58.7 km²), of which, 22.1 square miles (57.2 km²) of it is land and 0.6 square miles (1.4 km²) of it (2.43%) is water.
As of the
censusA "census" is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population.In other words every 10 years...next one would be in 2010 The term is used mostly in connection with...
of 2000, there were 320 people, 135 households, and 75 families residing in the CDP.
Bluff is a
census-designated placeA census-designated place is a type of place identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages...
(CDP) in
San Juan CountySan Juan County is a county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the largest county in terms of physical area in the state. In the 2000 census its population was 14,413, which by 2005 is estimated to have decreased to 14,104...
,
UtahUtah is a western state of the United States. It was the 45th state admitted to the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80 percent of Utah's 2,736,424 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering around Salt Lake City. In contrast, vast expanses of the state are nearly uninhabited, making...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The population was 320 at the
2000 censusThe Twenty-Second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...
.
Geography
Bluff is located at (37.283696, -109.552871), in the scenic and very sparsely-populated southeastern Utah canyonlands of the
Colorado PlateauThe Colorado Plateau, also called the Colorado Plateau Province, is a physiographic region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. The province covers an area of 337,000 km² within western Colorado, northwestern New Mexico,...
.
According to the
United States Census BureauThe United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data. As part of the United States Department of Commerce, the Census Bureau serves as the leading source of quality data about...
, the CDP has a total area of 22.6 square miles (58.7 km²), of which, 22.1 square miles (57.2 km²) of it is land and 0.6 square miles (1.4 km²) of it (2.43%) is water.
Demographics
As of the
censusA "census" is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population.In other words every 10 years...next one would be in 2010 The term is used mostly in connection with...
of 2000, there were 320 people, 135 households, and 75 families residing in the CDP. The
population densityPopulation density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans. It is a key term used in geography....
was 14.5 people per square mile (5.6/km²). There were 191 housing units at an average density of 8.6/sq mi (3.3/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 62.50% White, 35.00% Native American, 0.94% from
other racesRace and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the United States Census Bureau and the Federal Office of Management and Budget , are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 1.56% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.06% of the population.
There were 135 households out of which 28.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.4% were
married couplesMarriage is a social union or legal contract between individuals that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged by a variety of ways, depending on the culture or demographic...
living together, 5.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 44.4% were non-families. 35.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 3.25.
In the CDP the population was spread out with 25.9% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24, 29.1% from 25 to 44, 25.6% from 45 to 64, and 10.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 102.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 104.3 males.
The median income for a household in the CDP was $23,906, and the median income for a family was $30,938. Males had a median income of $31,563 versus $14,792 for females. The
per capita incomePer capita income means how much each individual receives, in monetary terms, of the yearly income generated in the country. This is what each citizen is to receive if the yearly national income is divided equally among everyone. Per capita income is usually reported in units of currency per year...
for the CDP was $13,567. About 22.8% of families and 21.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 27.7% of those under age 18 and 25.0% of those age 65 or over.
History
Under the direction of
John TaylorJohn Taylor was the third president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1880 to 1887.Taylor was born in Milnthorpe, Westmorland , England, the son of James and Agnes Taylor...
, Silas S. Smith led about 230 Mormons on expedition to start a farming community in southeastern Utah. After forging about 200 miles (320 kilometers) of their own trail over difficult terrain, the settlers arrived on the site of Bluff in April 1880. (The trail followed went over and down the "
Hole In the RockHole-in-the-Rock is a narrow and steep crevice in the western rim of Glen Canyon, in southern Utah in the western United States. Together with another canyon on the eastern side of the Colorado River, it provided a historically important route through what would otherwise be a large area of...
," which now opens into one of the tributaries of Lake Powell.) The town survived despite hostilities from
NavajoThe Navajo or Diné of the Southwestern United States are the second largest Native American tribe of Northern America. In the 2000 U.S. census, 298,197 people claimed to be fully or partly of Navajo ancestry. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo...
s,
UteThe Ute are an ethnically related group of American Indians now living primarily in Utah and Colorado. There are three Ute tribal reservations: Uintah-Ouray in northeastern Utah ; Southern Ute in Colorado ; and Ute Mountain which primarily lies in Colorado, but extends to Utah and New Mexico...
s, belligerent cattlemen,
outlawAn outlaw or bandit is a person living the lifestyle of outlawry; the word literally means "outside the law".In the common law of England, a "Writ of Outlawry" declared the subject to be "Caput gerat lupinum" , and it followed not only that, since the subject was no longer human, he had no legal...
s, and nature. The town’s population had declined to seventy by 1930 but rebounded during a
uraniumUranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table that has the symbol U and atomic number 92. Besides its 92 protons, a uranium nucleus can have between 141 and 146 neutrons. The most common uranium isotopes are U-238 and U-235 . A uranium atom has...
prospectingProspecting is the physical search for minerals, fossils, precious metals or mineral specimens, and is also known as fossicking.Prospecting is a small-scale form of mineral exploration which latter is an organised, large scale effort undertaken by mineral resource companies to find commercially...
boom in the 1950s. With the uranium decline in the 1970s Bluff again declined and now remains a small town with about 300 residents.
Attractions and events
External links