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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.

Beckwourth within Plumas County

Then and now

1890 to 1994

The 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.

Topographic sheet of Beckwourth, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of Beckwourth, surveyed 1890

Population over time

2 figures

Beckwourth 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.

YearPeople Change
2010432
2020478+46 (+11%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 24 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

153 since 1992

Regional 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
Natural65
Missing data/not specified/undetermined25
Debris and open burning21
Recreation and ceremony13
Equipment and vehicle use11
Smoking7
Arson/incendiarism3
Railroad operations and maintenance3
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Other causes1

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
9 September 2005Naturalunder an acrePlumas National ForestGOLDRIDGE
8 September 2005Naturalunder an acrePlumas National ForestCERASOLA
6 September 2017Naturalunder an acrePlumas National ForestTABLE
30 September 2005Recreation and ceremonyunder an acrePlumas National ForestROCKY
30 September 2000Debris and open burningunder an acrePlumas National ForestBECK
3 September 2019Equipment and vehicle useunder an acrePlumas National ForestNERVINO
29 September 2019Naturalunder an acrePlumas National Forest23
22 September 2017Naturalunder an acrePlumas National ForestRIKER

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Plumas County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Rocky Point Borrow SiteSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Sierra Valley QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer

Every working recorded in Plumas County

Storms near this place

5 since 2002

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
November 2024Heavy RainBeckwourth-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 2021Heavy RainBeckwourth-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 2019Heavy RainBeckwourth-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 2003HailBeckwourth-Reported by spotter.
July 2002HailBeckwourth-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Plumas 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
Hawley1.4 miles25
Kerby (historical)2.3 miles24
Portola4.8 miles24
Delleker6.4 miles24
Lake Davis6.4 miles24
Iron Horse6.6 miles24
Mabie7.8 miles29
Delaney (historical)7.9 miles29

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 BeckwourthAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q813758The 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.