Benbow, California
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1921 and the latest in 1979. It stands in the Garberville census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95542. It stands on East Branch South Fork Eel River. The Survey maps it on the Garberville quadrangle. 422 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 440 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1921 to 1979The same ground, surveyed 58 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


On record in Benbow
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register within a mile 1 record
The National Register names another town for these. They stand within one mile of this settlement's coordinate.
Benbow Innlisted 1983 · 0.3 miles away
Population over time
2 figuresBenbow grew from 321 to 422 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 | 321 | |
| 2020 | 422 | +101 (+31%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 14 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.
- 1921 USGS Briceland quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1949 USGS Garberville quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1951 USGS Garberville quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Redding quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1970 USGS Garberville quadrangle1:24000
- 1979 USGS Garberville quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
280 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 280 fires within 5 miles of Benbow between 1992 and 2020, burning about 512 acres in total. 15 started naturally. 7 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/undetermined | 119 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 64 |
| Debris and open burning | 29 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 21 |
| Natural | 15 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 11 |
| Smoking | 10 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 7 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| 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 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | DUMP |
| 8 September 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Humboldt-Del Norte Unit | RIFLE 2 |
| 8 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Humboldt-Del Norte Unit | WINDY |
| 8 September 2007 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Humboldt-Del Norte Unit | ORCHARD 3 |
| 8 September 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Humboldt-Del Norte Unit | TOOBY |
| 7 September 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Humboldt-Del Norte Unit | REDWOOD |
| 7 September 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Humboldt-Del Norte Unit | AIRPORT |
| 5 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | DAISY |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
6 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Benbow: 3 producers, 2 unknowns, 1 occurrence. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monschke Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Cooks Valley Bar | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Randall Gravel Bar | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Garberville Prospect | Gold | Unknown | ||
| Unknown | Gold | Occurrence | Placer | |
| Unnamed Location | Gold | Unknown |
Storms near this place
1 since 2019Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Benbow in 1 storm report in 2019: 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2019 | Flood | Benbow | - | CHP reported roadway flooding at the Highway 101 Benbow offramp. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beall Place | 3.7 miles | 14 | |
| Redway | 4.1 miles | 14 | |
| Cooks Valley | 4.6 miles | 14 | |
| Briceland | 6.7 miles | 17 | |
| Harris | 6.8 miles | 14 | |
| Whitethorn | 9.0 miles | 17 | |
| Thorn Junction | 9.5 miles | 17 | |
| Phillipsville | 9.7 miles | 15 |
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 Benbow | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2834785 | 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 1655827. 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.





