Balch Camp, California
26 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1922 and the latest in 2004. It stands in the Sierra census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93667. It stands on Dinkey Creek. The Survey maps it on the Patterson Mountain quadrangle. It stands 1,273 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1922 to 2004The same ground, surveyed 82 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1922 against another survey:
Topographic sheets covering this place
13 surveys from 26 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1922 USGS Trimmer quadrangle1:96000
- 1924 USGS Dinuba quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1948 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1952 USGS Patterson Mountain quadrangle1:62500, 5 printings
- 1955 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1966 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1987 USGS Patterson Mtn quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 2004 USGS Patterson Mountain quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
30 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 30 fires within 5 miles of Balch Camp between 1992 and 2019, burning about 729 acres in total. 15 started naturally. 1 was 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 |
|---|---|
| Natural | 15 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 September 1998 | Natural | under an acre | Sierra National Forest | PATT |
| 3 September 2003 | Natural | under an acre | Sierra National Forest | BLACK ROCK |
| 23 September 1999 | Natural | under an acre | Sierra National Forest | I ROCK |
| 23 September 1999 | Natural | under an acre | Sierra National Forest | BIG |
| 21 September 1999 | Natural | under an acre | Sierra National Forest | ROSS |
| 14 September 2011 | Natural | under an acre | Sierra National Forest | LOUSY |
| 1 September 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 595 acres | Sierra National Forest | SECATA |
| 9 August 2005 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 35 acres | Sierra National Forest | BLACK ROCK |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 14 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 14 workings within 5 miles of Balch Camp: 5 past producers, 5 occurrences, 4 unknowns. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Tungsten, Silver, Gold, Chromium. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruth | Silver, Gold | Unknown | ||
| Unnamed Location | Chromium | Occurrence | ||
| Balch Claims | Tungsten | Past Producer | Scheelite | |
| Blue Star | Tungsten | Unknown | ||
| Hilltop Mine | Tungsten | Unknown | ||
| Kings River Tungsten | Tungsten | Past Producer | ||
| Kings River Tungsten | Tungsten | Past Producer | ||
| Kings River Tungsten Mine | Tungsten | Past Producer | Scheelite | |
| Kingsrow | Tungsten | Occurrence | ||
| Mc Bride Tungsten | Tungsten | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
4 since 2003Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Balch Camp in 4 storm reports between 2003 and 2019: 3 heavy rain, 1 funnel cloud. 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2019 | Funnel Cloud | Balch Camp | - | Reports and pictures posted on Facebook of a rotating and lowering funnel cloud west of Balch Camp. A tornado warning had been previously issued on this storm. |
| December 2014 | Heavy Rain | Balch Camp | - | Mesonet station Wishon Dam /WSHC1/ rainfall 1.83 inches. |
| February 2010 | Heavy Rain | Balch Camp | - | Twenty four hour storm rainfall was 1.53 inches at Wishon Dam. |
| November 2003 | Heavy Rain | Balch Camp | - | no account filed |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rodgers Crossing | 2.8 miles | 25 | |
| Crabtree | 4.5 miles | 25 | |
| Sawmill Flat | 7.2 miles | 26 | |
| Trimmer | 9.2 miles | 30 | |
| Goodmill | 10.0 miles | 25 | |
| Bretz Mill | 11.1 miles | 28 | |
| Dunlap | 11.4 miles | 23 | |
| Millwood (historical) | 12.6 miles | 23 |
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 Balch Camp | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q4850231 | The 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 256450. 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.












