Boulder Creek, California
34 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1902 and the latest in 1997. It stands in the San Lorenzo Valley census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95006. It stands on Boulder Creek. The Survey maps it on the Castle Rock Ridge quadrangle. 5,429 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 479 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1902 to 1997The same ground, surveyed 95 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


On record in Boulder 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
Grace Episcopal Churchlisted 2006
Population over time
2 figuresBoulder Creek grew from 4,923 to 5,429 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 | 4,923 | |
| 2020 | 5,429 | +506 (+10%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
15 surveys from 34 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.
- 1902 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:125000, 9 printings
- 1947 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1948 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS Castle Rock Ridge quadrangle1:24000, 7 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
- 1982 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1991 USGS Castle Rock Ridge quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1997 USGS Castle Rock Ridge quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
379 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 379 fires within 5 miles of Boulder Creek between 1992 and 2020, burning about 8,928 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 12 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 | 153 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 106 |
| Debris and open burning | 32 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 25 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 22 |
| Smoking | 15 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 12 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 8 |
| Natural | 4 |
| Other causes | 2 |
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 2013 | Smoking | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | CREEKSIDE AV ZAYANTE |
| 9 September 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | EMPIRE GRADE |
| 9 September 1993 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | BEAR CREEK #3 |
| 9 September 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | BEAR CREEK NUMBER 2 |
| 8 September 2015 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | LAKE |
| 8 September 1999 | Natural | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | UPPER |
| 8 September 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | QUAIL HOLLOW |
| 7 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | JAMISON |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
7 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Boulder Creek: 4 occurrences, 1 past producer, 1 producer, 1 unknown. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Limestone, Dimension, Gold, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Flagstone. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central Supply Co | Flagstone | Unknown | ||
| Quail Hollow | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Unnamed Location | Gold | Occurrence | ||
| Unnamed Location | Gold | Occurrence | ||
| Ixl Quarry | Limestone, Dimension | Past Producer | ||
| Unnamed Location | Limestone, Dimension | Occurrence | ||
| Unnamed Location | Limestone, Dimension | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
2 since 2004Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Boulder Creek in 2 storm reports between 2004 and 2019: 1 hail, 1 debris flow. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2019 | Debris Flow | Boulder Creek | - | Slide covering part of 236 roadway near mile marker 7.35. |
| October 2004 | Hail | Boulder 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forest Park | 1.0 miles | 33 | |
| Bracken Brae | 1.5 miles | 33 | |
| Brookdale | 1.6 miles | 32 | |
| Forest Springs | 1.7 miles | 33 | |
| Wildwood | 1.9 miles | 33 | |
| Rices Junction | 1.9 miles | 33 | |
| Redwood Grove | 2.3 miles | 33 | |
| Ben Lomond | 3.2 miles | 32 |
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 Boulder Creek | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2195131 | 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 277478. 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.














