Beckwourth, California
24 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1890 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Portola census division. It lies in ZIP code area 96129. It lies near Sierra Valley. The Survey maps it on the Portola quadrangle. 478 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,911 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1890 to 1994The same ground, surveyed 104 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Population over time
2 figuresBeckwourth grew from 432 to 478 between 2010 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 432 | |
| 2020 | 478 | +46 (+11%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 24 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.
- 1890 USGS Sierraville quadrangle1:125000
- 1892 USGS Sierraville quadrangle1:125000
- 1894 USGS Sierraville quadrangle1:125000, 9 printings
- 1950 USGS Portola quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1960 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000
- 1972 USGS Portola quadrangle1:24000
- 1979 USGS Portola quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1994 USGS Portola quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
153 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 153 fires within 5 miles of Beckwourth between 1992 and 2020, burning about 4,598 acres in total. 65 started naturally. 3 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 |
|---|---|
| Natural | 65 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 |
| Debris and open burning | 21 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 13 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 11 |
| Smoking | 7 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Other causes | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2005 | Natural | under an acre | Plumas National Forest | GOLDRIDGE |
| 8 September 2005 | Natural | under an acre | Plumas National Forest | CERASOLA |
| 6 September 2017 | Natural | under an acre | Plumas National Forest | TABLE |
| 30 September 2005 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Plumas National Forest | ROCKY |
| 30 September 2000 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Plumas National Forest | BECK |
| 3 September 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Plumas National Forest | NERVINO |
| 29 September 2019 | Natural | under an acre | Plumas National Forest | 23 |
| 22 September 2017 | Natural | under an acre | Plumas National Forest | RIKER |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Beckwourth: 2 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rocky Point Borrow Site | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Sierra Valley Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Storms near this place
5 since 2002Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Beckwourth in 5 storm reports between 2002 and 2024: 3 heavy rain, 2 hail. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2024 | Heavy Rain | Beckwourth | - | A CocoRAHS station (CA-PM-9 Beckwourth) located 3.0 mi E of Beckwourth, CA, reported a total rainfall amount of 0.99 inches. |
| October 2021 | Heavy Rain | Beckwourth | - | Several Mesonet/ASOS sites reported rainfall amounts ranging around 1.0 near Cromberg, CA; 2.0-4.0 west of Janesville, CA; and 4.0-6.0 SE of Frenchman Lake. |
| December 2019 | Heavy Rain | Beckwourth | - | RAWS CYVC1 6 miles north-northeast of Lake Davis reported 1.76 inches of rainfall in a 48-hour period from 6 December 1959PST to 8 December 1959PST at an elevation of 5570 feet MSL. |
| September 2003 | Hail | Beckwourth | - | Reported by spotter. |
| July 2002 | Hail | Beckwourth | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawley | 1.4 miles | 25 | |
| Kerby (historical) | 2.3 miles | 24 | |
| Portola | 4.8 miles | 24 | |
| Delleker | 6.4 miles | 24 | |
| Lake Davis | 6.4 miles | 24 | |
| Iron Horse | 6.6 miles | 24 | |
| Mabie | 7.8 miles | 29 | |
| Delaney (historical) | 7.9 miles | 29 |
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 Beckwourth | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q813758 | 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 1658022. 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.








