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Alamo, California

39 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1897 and the latest in 1995. It stands in the Central Contra Costa census division. It lies in ZIP code area 94507. It lies near Stone Valley. The Survey maps it on the Las Trampas Ridge quadrangle. 15,314 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 259 feet above sea level.

Alamo within Contra Costa County

Then and now

1897 to 1995

The same ground, surveyed 98 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Alamo, surveyed 1995
Topographic sheet of Alamo, surveyed 1897

Population over time

3 figures

Alamo grew from 1,791 to 15,314 between 1960 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
19601,791
201014,570
202015,314+744 (+5%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

21 surveys from 39 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Fires near this place

193 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 193 fires within 5 miles of Alamo between 1992 and 2020, burning about 469 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 14 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined70
Equipment and vehicle use53
Smoking31
Arson/incendiarism14
Misuse of fire by a minor11
Debris and open burning8
Power generation/transmission/distribution5
Natural1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
8 September 2012Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSanta Clara UnitSAINT MARYS RD MORAGA
8 September 2008Debris and open burningunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
7 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
5 September 2011Power generation/transmission/distribution9.0 acresSanta Clara UnitBOLLINGER
29 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSanta Clara Unitnot named
29 September 2011Smokingunder an acreSanta Clara Unitnot named
29 September 2011Smokingunder an acreSanta Clara Unitnot named
29 September 2005Smokingunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Contra Costa County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 15 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 15 workings within 5 miles of Alamo: 7 occurrences, 4 past producers, 3 prospects, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Copper, Asbestos, Limestone, General. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Clark & SonsClayProspect
Mclaughlin Lithograph-Stone QuarryLimestone, GeneralOccurrenceSedimentary
Mclaughlinlithograph-StonequarryLimestone, Dimension, Stone, Crushed/BrokenOccurrence
Mount ZionCopper, Gold, SilverPast Producer
N. M. Ball SonsStoneOccurrence
N. M. Ball SonsSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Arroyo Del Carro ProspectAsbestosProspect
Arroyo Del Cerro ProspectsAsbestosOccurrence
Mitchell Canyon ProspectCopperProspect
BallStone, Crushed/BrokenOccurrence

Every working recorded in Contra Costa County

Storms near this place

1 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Alamo in 1 storm report in 2018: 1 flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
January 2018FloodAlamo-Roadway flooding at I 680S and Livorna Road off ramp.

Every storm recorded in Contra Costa County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Walnut Heights2.1 miles42
Alamo Oaks2.2 miles27
Danville2.6 miles27
Saranap3.3 miles42
Diablo4.1 miles27
Walnut Creek4.2 miles42
Rheem5.1 miles42
Rock City5.1 miles27

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on AlamoAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q241598The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1657900. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.