Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Near North Bluff Bluff, UT

Bluff is a town in San Juan County, Utah, and the 2020 census counted 240 residents, down from 320 in 2000 when it was still a census-designated place.

Bluff was founded on April 6, 1880, when Silas S. Smith and Danish settler Jens Nielson led about 230 Mormons on an expedition to start a farming community in southeastern Utah.

The settlers forged about 200 miles of their own trail over difficult terrain, including the descent down the Hole in the Rock, which now opens into a tributary of Lake Powell.

The town was named for the bluffs along the San Juan River, and its Navajo name is Tséłgaii Deezʼáhí.

Bluff's population had declined to about seventy by 1930 but rebounded during a uranium prospecting boom in the 1950s, then declined again with the uranium bust in the 1970s.

Bluff was incorporated as a town on August 31, 2018, and it is governed by a mayor-council government.

Bluff sits on the north margin of the San Juan River valley at the confluence of Cottonwood Wash with the San Juan, and U.S. Routes 163 and 191 and State Route 162 pass through the community.

Bluff has a cold desert climate, averaging just over 8 inches of snow a year and about 7.28 inches of precipitation, with days reaching 90 degrees Fahrenheit an average of 86 days a year.

Bluff's attractions include Bluff Fort, the Navajo Twin Rocks landmark, the Bluff Pioneer Cemetery, and the Bears Ears Education Center, and its historic district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Bluff hosts a Winter Balloon Festival in January, a Bluff Arts Festival in October, and the Utah Navajo Fair in September.