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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.

Blue Lake within Humboldt County

Then and now

1922 to 1982

The 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.

Topographic sheet of Blue Lake, surveyed 1982
Topographic sheet of Blue Lake, surveyed 1922

Population over time

2 figures

Blue 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.

YearPeople Change
20101,253
20201,208-45 (-4%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 16 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

182 since 1992

Regional 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/undetermined78
Debris and open burning40
Equipment and vehicle use25
Arson/incendiarism11
Recreation and ceremony11
Smoking5
Natural4
Misuse of fire by a minor4
Power generation/transmission/distribution3
Other causes1

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 2000Debris and open burningunder an acreHumboldt-Del Norte UnitBROWNFIELD
8 September 2001Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreHumboldt-Del Norte UnitROXANNE
7 September 2004Smokingunder an acreHumboldt-Del Norte UnitESSEX
6 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreHumboldt-Del Norte UnitBUCKLEY
5 September 1996Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreHumboldt-Del Norte UnitFUSI
4 September 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreHumboldt-Del Norte UnitHATCHERY 3
4 September 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreHumboldt-Del Norte UnitHATCHERY 00
4 September 2008Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Humboldt County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 25 shown

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Jacoby Creek DepositLimestone, GeneralProspectSedimentary
Hungry HollowClayProspectSedimentary
Hungry HollowClayOccurrence
Liscomb HillBarium-BariteOccurrenceBarite
Liscomb HillBarium-BariteProspect
W A Preston ProspectIronProspect
W. A. Preston PropertyIronOccurrence
Hanes CreekManganeseProducer
Janes CreekManganeseProducer
Janes CreekManganeseProspect1918

Every working recorded in Humboldt County

Storms near this place

4 since 2003

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
January 2017Heavy RainBlue Lake$650,000Roadway pushup caused by landslide near mile post 19 on Highway 299.
December 2025FloodBlue Lake-Flooding of roads reported in the Blue Lake area. Multiple roads flooded around the community.
March 2018Heavy RainBlue Lake-Mud/Rock slide blocked one lane of traffic in Blue Lake.
August 2003HailBlue Lake-Redwood Valley

Every storm recorded in Humboldt 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
Riverside1.5 miles14
Korbel1.6 miles14
Glendale2.1 miles21
Essex3.2 miles21
Fickle Hill3.4 miles21
Sunny Brae4.7 miles21
Korblex4.8 miles21
Bayside5.1 miles21

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 LakeAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2907220The 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.