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Introduction ...

Although we found mention of Oljato - Monument Valley during our research, we have little information about it.<1> Given the context of how Oljato - Monument Valley was mentioned, we believe that it was a community rather than a locale or some type of landmark. We have done a cursory search and if it was a community, we haven't been able to find any evidence that it still exists..

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Oljato - Monument Valley (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Oljato - Monument Valley. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Name Variations for Oljato - Monument Valley ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Oljato - Monument Valley: Oljato Monument Vly. (or less commonly used: Oljato Monument Vally. or Oljato Monument Vlly.)

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the south.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the west contained birth and death records; the county to the south contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Oljato - Monument Valley is located in San Juan County.

To see how the shape of Utah's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of San Juan County: Apache (AZ), Coconino (AZ), Navajo (AZ), Dolores (CO), Montezuma (CO), Montrose (CO), San Miguel (CO), San Juan (NM), Emery, Garfield, Grand, Kane & Wayne.

Below are the counties that are near Oljato - Monument Valley. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Oljato - Monument Valley:

  • San Juan County     (The home county of Oljato - Monument Valley)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oljato - Monument Valley, with the one closest to Oljato - Monument Valley listed first.
    • Oljato
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oljato
      • Oljato is located in San Juan County
      • Oljato has also been known as:
      • Moonlight
      • Oljato Trading Post
      • Olje
      • Oljeto Trading Post
      • Oljeto
      • Oljetoh Trading Post
    • Piute Farms ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Piute Farms. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Piute Farms
      • Piute Farms is located in San Juan County
    • Halchita
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Halchita
      • Halchita is located in San Juan County
    • Mexican Hat
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Zahn's Camp ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Zahn's Camp. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Zahn's Camp
      • Zahn's Camp is located in San Juan County
    • Rainbow City
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rainbow City have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rainbow City
      • Rainbow City is located in San Juan County
    • Navajo Mountain
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Navajo Mountain
      • Navajo Mountain is located in San Juan County
  • Apache County (AZ)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oljato - Monument Valley, with the one closest to Oljato - Monument Valley listed first.
    • Dennehotso
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Tes Nez Iah
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tes Nez Iah
      • Tes Nez Iah is located in Apache County (AZ)
  • Navajo County (AZ)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oljato - Monument Valley, with the one closest to Oljato - Monument Valley listed first.
    • Oljato - Monument Valley
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Kayenta
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Baby Rocks
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Baby Rocks
      • Baby Rocks is located in Navajo County (AZ)
    • Tsegi
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tsegi
      • Tsegi is located in Navajo County (AZ)

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Oljato - Monument Valley, see our County-by-County Page for Oljato - Monument Valley.

Cemeteries Near Oljato - Monument Valley ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Oljato - Monument Valley.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Oljato - Monument Valley. See our List of 1890's Communities around Oljato - Monument Valley.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These helpful websites offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Oljato - Monument Valley:

The official website for State of Utah: https://www.utah.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer. For example, we might find a sentence like "He went south past Oljato - Monument Valley and then turned east". While Oljato - Monument Valley could be some kind of landmark, we think that it's more likely to be a community. We've added Oljato - Monument Valley as a placeholder with the hope that we'll be able to add more information in the future.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Miller Creek to see Pete ... Miller Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Oljato - Monument Valley could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.

Since confusion between counties is common, we searched and weren't able to find another Utah community named Oljato - Monument Valley.
<2>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<5>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025