TheUtah Territory authorized the creation of San Juan County on February 17, 1880, with territories annexed fromIron,Kane, andPiute counties. There has been no change in its boundaries since its creation. Monticello was founded in 1887, and by 1895 it was large enough to be designated the seat of San Juan County.[4] On September 13, 2025, two extreme-level tornadoes touched down in the county. One was an EFU, the other was a strong EF2.
Ruins in Montezuma Canyon with stones of unusual size
San Juan County lies in the southeastern corner of the state of Utah. Its borders coincide with the borders of the states ofColorado,New Mexico, andArizona with Utah.[5] The convergence point of these borders,Four Corners Monument, is located at the extreme southeastern corner of the county.
The county's terrain generally slopes to the west and the south, with its highest point,Mount Peale, at 12,726 feet (3,879 m) above sea level.[6] The county has a total area of 7,933 square miles (20,550 km2), of which 7,820 square miles (20,300 km2) is land and 113 square miles (290 km2) (1.4%) is water.[7] It is the largest county by area in Utah.
TheBlue (Abajo) Mountains and theLa Sal Mountains exceed 12,000 feet (3,700 m) in elevation. Both ranges are covered with lush forests, contrasting the scenery below. The elevation change within the county is from nearly 13,000 feet (4,000 m) in the La Sal Mountains to 3,000 feet (910 m) at Lake Powell, a difference of about 10,000 feet (3,000 m).
House on Fire ruin, one of manyAncestral Pueblo ruins in the county
In 2018, the only operating uranium processing plant in the United States was located in the town ofBlanding; however, the plant was moved to be on standby in 2019.[8]
San Juan County is home to numerous oil and gas fields, includingSquaw Canyon Oil Field, that produce primarily from the Desert Creek and Ismay Formations.[citation needed]
San Juan County, Utah – Racial and ethnic composition Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
There were 7,269 (50.07%) males and 7,249 (49.93%) females, and the population distribution by age was 4,176 (28.8%) under the age of 18, 8,104 (55.8%) from 18 to 64, and 2,238 (15.4%) who were at least 65 years old. The median age was 34.6 years.
There were 4,649 households in San Juan County with an average size of 3.12 of which 3,397 (73.1%) were families and 1,252 (26.9%) were non-families. Among all families, 2,359 (50.7%) weremarried couples, 317 (6.8%) were male householders with no spouse, and 721 (15.5%) were female householders with no spouse. Among all non-families, 1,070 (23.0%) were a single person living alone and 182 (3.9%) were two or more people living together. 1,848 (39.8%) of all households had children under the age of 18. 3,708 (79.8%) of households wereowner-occupied while 941 (20.2%) wererenter-occupied.
The median income for a San Juan County household was $49,690 and the median family income was $57,401, with aper-capita income of $20,088. The median income for males that werefull-time employees was $48,259 and for females $34,092. 22.8% of the population and 18.1% of families were below thepoverty line.
As of the2010 United States census, there were 14,746 people and 4,505 households in San Juan County. The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 50.4% Native American, 45.8% White, 0.3% Asian, 0.2% African American and 2.3% reporting two or more races. 4.4% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race.[22]
San Juan County has supported Republican presidents since voting forWendell Willkie in 1940. It supported aDemocrat for president in 1896 (William Jennings Bryan), 1916 (Woodrow Wilson), and1936 (Franklin D. Roosevelt). Though a Republican vote currently secures elections, the area has voted less Republican than the rest of Utah in many national elections. In 2004, for example,George W. Bush won 60.02% in San Juan County versus 71.54% in the state. In 2020, DemocratJoe Biden needed 6.13% more votes to win the county fromDonald Trump, who secured 51.2% in the county as opposed to 58.13% in the state as a whole. The county is more competitive at the state level due to its highNative American population, which leans Democratic. Notably, the county voted for the Democratic candidates in the1988 and2000 gubernatorial elections, both of which Republican candidates won.
Federally mandated commissioner districts put manyNavajo voters in one district. The San Juan County Board of Commissioners has been majority white for many years. In 2016, a Federal District Court decision found voting districts violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution. Before the 2016 court decision, the county used an at-large voting system to elect commissioners.[23]
In 2018, the first-ever majority-Navajo commission was seated. Two of the three county commissioners, Willie Grayeyes and Kenneth Maryboy, are board members of Utah Diné Bikeyah, which supported the creation of Bears Ears National Monument.[24] In a 2019 special election, Proposition 10, which would have changed the structure of the county government to include five county commissioners, was blocked needing 153 more popular votes.[25] The proposition, spearheaded byBlanding Mayor Joe Lyman, was characterized by opponents as an effort to undermine the Navajo-majority county commission.[26] Mayor Joe Lyman characterized the proposition as a way to restore representation to Blanding, the county's largest city. He states, "I don't like how we arrived at the commissioners we have because it felt like a judicial appointment," and that "the vote is very evenly split."[27]
As of March 2020, efforts were underway to bring municipal water and electrical service to the 29-home Diné (Navajo) community of Westwater, which has existed for decades with neither just outside the city limits of Blanding.[28]
