Blue Lake, California
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1922 and the latest in 1982. It stands in the North Coastal census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95525. It stands on North Fork Mad River. The Survey maps it on the Blue Lake quadrangle. 1,208 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 131 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1922 to 1982The same ground, surveyed 60 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Population over time
2 figuresBlue Lake fell from 1,253 to 1,208 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 | 1,253 | |
| 2020 | 1,208 | -45 (-4%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 16 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.
- 1922 USGS Korbel quadrangle1:62500
- 1945 USGS Blue Lake quadrangle1:62500
- 1951 USGS Blue Lake quadrangle1:62500, 5 printings
- 1958 USGS Redding quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1979 USGS Blue Lake quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1982 USGS Hayfork quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
182 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 182 fires within 5 miles of Blue Lake between 1992 and 2020, burning about 143 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 11 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 | 78 |
| Debris and open burning | 40 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 25 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 11 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 11 |
| Smoking | 5 |
| Natural | 4 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 4 |
| 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 2000 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Humboldt-Del Norte Unit | BROWNFIELD |
| 8 September 2001 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Humboldt-Del Norte Unit | ROXANNE |
| 7 September 2004 | Smoking | under an acre | Humboldt-Del Norte Unit | ESSEX |
| 6 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Humboldt-Del Norte Unit | BUCKLEY |
| 5 September 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Humboldt-Del Norte Unit | FUSI |
| 4 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Humboldt-Del Norte Unit | HATCHERY 3 |
| 4 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Humboldt-Del Norte Unit | HATCHERY 00 |
| 4 September 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 25 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 25 workings within 5 miles of Blue Lake: 13 producers, 6 prospects, 5 occurrences, 1 past producer. 13 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Manganese, Iron, Barium-Barite. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jacoby Creek Deposit | Limestone, General | Prospect | Sedimentary | |
| Hungry Hollow | Clay | Prospect | Sedimentary | |
| Hungry Hollow | Clay | Occurrence | ||
| Liscomb Hill | Barium-Barite | Occurrence | Barite | |
| Liscomb Hill | Barium-Barite | Prospect | ||
| W A Preston Prospect | Iron | Prospect | ||
| W. A. Preston Property | Iron | Occurrence | ||
| Hanes Creek | Manganese | Producer | ||
| Janes Creek | Manganese | Producer | ||
| Janes Creek | Manganese | Prospect | 1918 |
Storms near this place
4 since 2003Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Blue Lake in 4 storm reports between 2003 and 2025: 2 heavy rain, 1 hail, 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 2017 | Heavy Rain | Blue Lake | $650,000 | Roadway pushup caused by landslide near mile post 19 on Highway 299. |
| December 2025 | Flood | Blue Lake | - | Flooding of roads reported in the Blue Lake area. Multiple roads flooded around the community. |
| March 2018 | Heavy Rain | Blue Lake | - | Mud/Rock slide blocked one lane of traffic in Blue Lake. |
| August 2003 | Hail | Blue Lake | - | Redwood Valley |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Riverside | 1.5 miles | 14 | |
| Korbel | 1.6 miles | 14 | |
| Glendale | 2.1 miles | 21 | |
| Essex | 3.2 miles | 21 | |
| Fickle Hill | 3.4 miles | 21 | |
| Sunny Brae | 4.7 miles | 21 | |
| Korblex | 4.8 miles | 21 | |
| Bayside | 5.1 miles | 21 |
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 Blue Lake | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2907220 | 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 1658083. 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.





