Bolinas, California
39 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1897 and the latest in 1993. It stands in the Bolinas census division. It lies in ZIP code area 94924. It lies near Kent Island. The Survey maps it on the Bolinas quadrangle. 1,483 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 36 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1897 to 1993The same ground, surveyed 96 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


On record in Bolinas
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
Marconi-RCA Bolinas Transmitting Stationlisted 2018
Population over time
2 figuresBolinas fell from 1,620 to 1,483 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 | 1,620 | |
| 2020 | 1,483 | -137 (-8%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
16 surveys from 39 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.
- 1897 USGS Tamalpais quadrangle1:62500, 12 printings
- 1941 USGS Tamalpais quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1948 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1950 USGS Mt. Tamalpais quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1954 USGS Bolinas quadrangle1:24000, 6 printings
- 1955 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1978 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1993 USGS Bolinas quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
39 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 39 fires within 5 miles of Bolinas between 1993 and 2020, burning about 100 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 1 was 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 | 13 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 9 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 8 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 4 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 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 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Point Reyes National Seashore | RANDALL |
| 22 September 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Point Reyes National Seashore | MESA |
| 22 September 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Golden Gate National Recreation Area | BASE END |
| 18 September 2002 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Point Reyes National Seashore | TEIXERA |
| 1 September 2002 | Smoking | under an acre | Golden Gate National Recreation Area | MILE 14 |
| 3 August 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Golden Gate National Recreation Area | DRIZZLE |
| 26 August 1997 | Equipment and vehicle use | 5.0 acres | Point Reyes National Seashore | MESA |
| 24 August 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | Golden Gate National Recreation Area | SHORELINE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 13 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 13 workings within 5 miles of Bolinas: 8 occurrences, 2 unknowns, 2 prospects, 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Copper, Silver, Gold, Silver, Mercury. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claim | Mercury | Occurrence | ||
| McKinnan Gulch | Copper, Lead | Occurrence | Vein | |
| Randall | Silver, Gold | Unknown | ||
| Union Gulch | Copper, Silver, Gold | Past Producer | 1863 | |
| Unnamed Location | Gemstone | Occurrence | ||
| Randall | Gold, Silver | Occurrence | ||
| Union Gulch | Copper, Gold, Silver | Unknown | ||
| Mt Tamalpais | Silver | Occurrence | ||
| Mt. Tamalpais | Silver | Occurrence | ||
| McKinnan Gulch | Copper | Prospect |
Storms near this place
3 since 2018Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bolinas in 3 storm reports between 2018 and 2024: 1 hail, 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 2024 | Flood | Bolinas | - | Rocks in lanes on State Highway 1 south of Fairfax Bolinas Road. |
| January 2021 | Debris Flow | Bolinas | - | Rockslide onto roadway at SR-1 near Bolinas. |
| March 2018 | Hail | Bolinas | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stinson Beach | 2.3 miles | 39 | |
| Woodville | 2.7 miles | 39 | |
| Muir Beach | 6.4 miles | 39 | |
| Shafter | 6.7 miles | 23 | |
| Kent Woodlands | 7.1 miles | 41 | |
| Lagunitas | 7.1 miles | 23 | |
| Mailliard (historical) | 7.3 miles | 23 | |
| San Geronimo | 7.3 miles | 23 |
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 Bolinas | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2686131 | 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 277476. 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.















