Gray Mountain, Arizona
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Gray Mountain is an
unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
in
Coconino County, Arizona Coconino County is a County (United States), county in the North Central Arizona, North-Central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. Its population was 145,101 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The county seat is Flagstaff, Arizon ...
, United States. Gray Mountain is located on
U.S. Route 89 U.S. Route 89 (US 89) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway with two sections, and one former section. The southern section runs for from Flagstaff, Arizona, to the southern entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The northern sectio ...
, north-northeast of Flagstaff, and south-southwest of
Cameron Cameron may refer to: People * Clan Cameron, a Scottish clan * Cameron (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Cameron (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) ;Mononym * Cam'ron (born 19 ...
. It is assigned the ZIP code 86016. The small community contained some motels, a trading post store, gas stations, and an
Arizona Department of Transportation The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT, ) is an Arizona state government agency charged with facilitating mobility within the state. In addition to managing the state's state highways, highway system, the agency is also involved with pu ...
maintenance yard.Linford, Laurance D
Tony Hillerman's Navajoland
p. 126 (2005)
Laurence, Robert P
Canyon Offers Bike Tour Drenched in Beauty
''Marion Star'' ("A hardy rider could skip Cameron, continuing eight miles to Gray Mountain, up a long hill to the site of a more luxurious motel and a choice of two or three restaurants. And, because it is off the reservation, Gray Mountain has liquor available.")
The Rough Guide To The Grand Canyon
p. 108 (2003)
The Gray Mountain Trading Post was first opened in 1935, and weathered a major fire in 1981.(June 22, 1981)
Gray Mountain Trading Post Destroyed by Weekend Inferno
''Arizona Daily Sun''
Eddington, Patrick
Trading Post Guidebook
p. 64 (1995)
The Gray Mountain Motel burned down in 1989; Gray Mountain had no fire department, and the limited response from nearby fire departments raised concerns about rural firefighting in Arizona. Most of these facilities have since closed. The Whitling Brothers Motel which was abandoned in 2005 is now used by the Painted Desert Project, which decorates abandoned buildings in the area.(October 2022).
Forgotten but not gone
''Arizona Daily Sun''
Chase, Mackeznie (January 3, 2021)

''Arizona Daily Sun''
A small gas station still operated at Gray Mountain as of 2018. There have been proposals to place a wind farm on the Gray Mountain ridge laying immediately west of the community.(March 28, 2008)
Rez ready to develop wind power
''Arizona Daily Sun'', p. 1 ("Gray Mountain southwest of Cameron is being evaluated for a possible wind farm." "the Gray Mountain ridge southwest of Tuba City and Cameron, immediate west of Gray Mountain")
The area is home to a large population of
wild horse The wild horse (''Equus ferus'') is a species of the genus Equus (genus), ''Equus'', which includes as subspecies the modern domestication of the horse, domesticated horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') as well as the Endangered species, endangered ...
s, though they have struggled due to drought conditions.


Climate

According to the
Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
system, Gray Mountain has a
semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of se ...
, abbreviated "BSk" on climate maps. Gray Mountain was affected by an intense
drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D.  Jiang, A.  Khan, W.  Pokam Mba, D.  Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...
in 2018. Nearly 200
feral horse A feral horse is a free-roaming horse of domesticated stock. As such, a feral horse is not a wild animal in the sense of an animal without domesticated ancestors. However, some populations of feral horses are managed as wildlife, and thes ...
s died while searching for water in a pond that had dried up; the horses became trapped in the remaining mud.
Overpopulation Overpopulation or overabundance is a state in which the population of a species is larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scale migr ...
played a role in the die-off; the
Navajo Nation The Navajo Nation (), also known as Navajoland, is an Indian reservation of Navajo people in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah. The seat of government is located in ...
estimated that 50,000–70,000 horses live in the region. The Gray Mountain area contains abandoned
uranium mine Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the earth. Over 50,000 tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account for 68% of w ...
s which have contaminated some of the drinking water supply and caused deleterious health conditions among the local
Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...
community. Little research has been conducted to determine the precise health effects of living near the uranium mines, and
United States Federal Government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...
initiatives to clean up
uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...
waste have been slow.


References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Coconino County, Arizona Unincorporated communities in Arizona