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Big Creek, California

27 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1904 and the latest in 2004. It stands in the Sierra census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93605. It stands on Pitman Creek. The Survey maps it on the Huntington Lake quadrangle. 151 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,984 feet above sea level.

Big Creek within Fresno County

Then and now

1904 to 2004

The same ground, surveyed 100 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Big Creek, surveyed 2004
Topographic sheet of Big Creek, surveyed 1904

On record in Big Creek

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 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Big Creek fell from 175 to 151 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
2010175
2020151-24 (-14%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 27 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

107 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 107 fires within 5 miles of Big Creek between 1992 and 2020, burning about 385,530 acres in total. 36 started naturally. 6 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
Natural36
Missing data/not specified/undetermined24
Recreation and ceremony17
Equipment and vehicle use7
Arson/incendiarism6
Power generation/transmission/distribution6
Debris and open burning6
Other causes2
Smoking2
Fireworks1

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 2015Naturalunder an acreSierra National ForestHUCKLEBERRY
7 September 2013Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreSierra National ForestHUNTINGTON
7 September 1998Naturalunder an acreSierra National ForestTAM
4 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined379,895 acresSierra National ForestCREEK
30 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSierra National ForestSHADY
3 September 2003Natural2.5 acresSierra National ForestBLACK CREEK
3 September 2003Naturalunder an acreSierra National ForestROCK
3 September 2003Natural2.5 acresSierra National ForestCOARSEGRASS

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Fresno 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 Big Creek: 1 prospect, 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Limestone, Dimension, Marble, Dimension, 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
Edna B. PlacerLimestone, Dimension, Marble, DimensionProspect
San Joaquin Marble CoStone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown

Every working recorded in Fresno County

Storms near this place

3 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Big Creek in 3 storm reports between 2006 and 2022: 1 flash flood, 1 debris flow, 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
December 2022FloodBig Creek-California Highway Patrol reported rocks on the road blocking east bound lanes of Huntington Lake Road.
October 2021Debris FlowBig Creek-California Highway Patrol reported two large boulders in the roadway on Mountain Spruce Rd. in Big Creek.
July 2006Flash FloodBig Creek-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Fresno 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
Camp Sierra1.2 miles28
Huntington Lake1.9 miles27
Cedar Crest3.6 miles27
Lakeshore5.0 miles29
Rock Haven6.7 miles28
Dora Belle7.5 miles27
Snow Bend7.7 miles29
Shaver Lake Heights7.8 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 Big CreekAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2472425The 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 1659696. 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.