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.
Then and now
1904 to 2004The 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.


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 figuresBig 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 175 | |
| 2020 | 151 | -24 (-14%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 27 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.
- 1904 USGS Kaiser quadrangle1:125000, 8 printings
- 1947 USGS Mariposa quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1948 USGS Mariposa quadrangle1:250000
- 1953 USGS Huntington Lake quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS Mariposa quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1963 USGS Mariposa quadrangle1:250000
- 1980 USGS Shaver Lake quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
- 1982 USGS Huntington Lake quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 2004 USGS Huntington Lake quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
107 since 1992Regional 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 |
|---|---|
| Natural | 36 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 24 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 17 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 7 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 6 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 6 |
| Debris and open burning | 6 |
| Other causes | 2 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2015 | Natural | under an acre | Sierra National Forest | HUCKLEBERRY |
| 7 September 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Sierra National Forest | HUNTINGTON |
| 7 September 1998 | Natural | under an acre | Sierra National Forest | TAM |
| 4 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 379,895 acres | Sierra National Forest | CREEK |
| 30 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Sierra National Forest | SHADY |
| 3 September 2003 | Natural | 2.5 acres | Sierra National Forest | BLACK CREEK |
| 3 September 2003 | Natural | under an acre | Sierra National Forest | ROCK |
| 3 September 2003 | Natural | 2.5 acres | Sierra National Forest | COARSEGRASS |
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 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edna B. Placer | Limestone, Dimension, Marble, Dimension | Prospect | ||
| San Joaquin Marble Co | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Unknown |
Storms near this place
3 since 2006Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2022 | Flood | Big Creek | - | California Highway Patrol reported rocks on the road blocking east bound lanes of Huntington Lake Road. |
| October 2021 | Debris Flow | Big Creek | - | California Highway Patrol reported two large boulders in the roadway on Mountain Spruce Rd. in Big Creek. |
| July 2006 | Flash Flood | Big Creek | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camp Sierra | 1.2 miles | 28 | |
| Huntington Lake | 1.9 miles | 27 | |
| Cedar Crest | 3.6 miles | 27 | |
| Lakeshore | 5.0 miles | 29 | |
| Rock Haven | 6.7 miles | 28 | |
| Dora Belle | 7.5 miles | 27 | |
| Snow Bend | 7.7 miles | 29 | |
| Shaver Lake Heights | 7.8 miles | 27 |
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 Creek | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2472425 | 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 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.









