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Biggs, California

22 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1993. It stands in the Biggs census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95917. The Survey maps it on the Biggs quadrangle. 1,964 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 98 feet above sea level.

Biggs within Butte County

Then and now

1888 to 1993

The same ground, surveyed 105 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Biggs, surveyed 1993
Topographic sheet of Biggs, surveyed 1888

Population over time

2 figures

Biggs grew from 1,707 to 1,964 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
20101,707
20201,964+257 (+15%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

11 surveys from 22 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

583 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 583 fires within 5 miles of Biggs between 1992 and 2020, burning about 8,247 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 50 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/undetermined232
Debris and open burning133
Equipment and vehicle use125
Arson/incendiarism50
Misuse of fire by a minor18
Smoking15
Recreation and ceremony7
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Natural1

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 2006Debris and open burning2.0 acresButte UnitCHATFIELD
9 September 1996Debris and open burning2.0 acresButte UnitPAMMA,G
8 September 2007Debris and open burningunder an acreButte UnitGRIDLEY FARM LABOR CAMP G
7 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresButte UnitBIGGS
7 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresButte UnitBONITO
7 September 1992Arson/incendiarismunder an acreButte UnitHAMILTON
6 September 2013Debris and open burningunder an acreButte UnitOREGON
5 September 2001Equipment and vehicle use10 acresButte UnitHWY 70

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Butte County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 18 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 18 workings within 5 miles of Biggs: 7 producers, 6 occurrences, 5 unknowns. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone. 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
Woods Pit & MillStoneProducer
Butte County Gravel PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionOccurrenceSedimentary
Cooper Pit and MillSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Gridley Pit and MillSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Mathews RoySand and Gravel, ConstructionOccurrenceSedimentary
Mcfarland Pit and MillSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Oroville Wildlife PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Robinson Construction CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Vance PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Gold Hill Dredging CompanyGoldOccurrencePlacer

Every working recorded in Butte County

Storms near this place

5 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Biggs in 5 storm reports between 1993 and 2024: 3 flood, 1 tornado, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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
January 1993Tornado (F1)Biggs$50,000A barn roof was tossed 75 feet and 2 vehicles were damaged by the tornado.
November 2015Thunderstorm WindBiggs$20,000Trees and power lines were knocked down in east Biggs by winds from a microburst. The California Highway Patrol, Cal Fire-Butte County and Pacific Gas and Electric responded to reports of downed power lines on Dos Rios Road in East Biggs. PG&Es outage map indicated that about 104 residences were affected by the outage as late as 5 p.m. Sunday.
November 2024FloodBiggs-California Highway Patrol reported multiple vehicles stuck in water on the road at Colusa Highway and Cherokee Canal Road due to heavy rain.
November 2024FloodBiggs-California Highway Patrol reported the road closure of Highway 99 between State Route 162 and State Route 149 due to roadway flooding from heavy rain.
December 2012FloodBiggs-A series of consecutive heavy rainfall events caused creeks and streams to rise rapidly due to ground saturation. A spotter reported flooding in the Butte Sink area along the Butte and Colusa County border. Approximately 4 inches of water has accumulated over the Gridley Rd-Colusa Hwy roadway, which has closed the road.

Every storm recorded in Butte 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
Riceton2.6 miles22
East Biggs3.1 miles22
Peachton3.5 miles22
Gridley3.5 miles22
Hume (historical)3.5 miles22
Richland (historical)3.7 miles22
Haselbusch (historical)4.1 miles22
East Gridley4.3 miles22

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 BiggsAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2902454The 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 277474. 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.