Bucks Lake, California
23 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Quincy census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95956. It stands on Haskins Creek. The Survey maps it on the Haskins Valley quadrangle. 22 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 5,161 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1888 to 1994The same ground, surveyed 106 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 figuresBucks Lake grew from 10 to 22 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 | 10 | |
| 2020 | 22 | +12 (+120%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 23 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.
- 1888 USGS Bidwell Bar quadrangle1:125000
- 1891 USGS Bidwell Bar quadrangle1:125000
- 1893 USGS Bidwell Bar quadrangle1:125000
- 1895 USGS Bidwell Bar quadrangle1:125000
- 1897 USGS Bidwell Bar quadrangle1:125000, 7 printings
- 1950 USGS Bucks Lake quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1960 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000
- 1980 USGS Chico quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1980 USGS Haskins Valley quadrangle1:24000
- 1994 USGS Haskins Valley quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
72 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 72 fires within 5 miles of Bucks Lake between 1992 and 2019, burning about 21 acres in total. 27 started naturally. 3 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 |
|---|---|
| Natural | 27 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 12 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 5 |
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Fireworks | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 September 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4.0 acres | Plumas National Forest | PLEASANT |
| 29 September 2005 | Natural | under an acre | Plumas National Forest | ON TOP |
| 27 September 2003 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Plumas National Forest | LAKE |
| 27 September 1992 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | Plumas National Forest | FOREBAY |
| 26 September 2005 | Natural | under an acre | Plumas National Forest | RIGHT HAND |
| 25 September 1994 | Natural | under an acre | Plumas National Forest | not named |
| 23 September 1998 | Natural | under an acre | Plumas National Forest | MONITOR |
| 2 September 2007 | Fireworks | under an acre | Plumas National Forest | BURNING TREE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 26 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 26 workings within 5 miles of Bucks Lake: 18 occurrences, 4 unknowns, 3 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Gold, Silver, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Uranium. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buck Lake Job Coffee Creek S and G | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Lahonda Mine | Uranium | Occurrence | ||
| Penrose Lode | Manganese | Occurrence | ||
| Albion | Gold, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| Gibsonville | Gold, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| Boyd | Gold | Occurrence | ||
| Commercial | Gold | Occurrence | ||
| Deadwood | Gold | Unknown | ||
| Dora | Gold | Occurrence | ||
| Gold Mountain Hydrlic & Drdging Co | Gold | Unknown |
Storms near this place
4 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bucks Lake in 4 storm reports between 1999 and 2017: 2 wildfire, 1 hail, 1 heavy rain. 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 | Bucks Lake | - | There were 11.25 inches measured at Bucks Lake. The duration of the heavy rain event was 72 hours. |
| May 2013 | Hail | Bucks Lake | - | A thunderstorm developed over the Sierra mountains near Downieville around 1:30 pm PDT and was reported to produce hail for over 30 minutes near Bucks Lake in Plumas County (between 3:20 pm PDT and 4:00 pm PDT). It became severe around 3:30 pm PDT with measured hail of 1 inch. The thunderstorm weakened after 4:00 pm PDT. |
| September 1999 | Wildfire | Bucks Lake | - | no account filed |
| August 1999 | Wildfire | Bucks Lake | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bucks Lodge | 0.6 miles | 24 | |
| Paulson Place | 2.8 miles | 23 | |
| China Gulch (historical) | 3.8 miles | 23 | |
| Edmanton (historical) | 4.7 miles | 23 | |
| Meadow Valley | 7.7 miles | 23 | |
| Palmetto | 7.8 miles | 24 | |
| Silver Creek (historical) | 7.8 miles | 23 | |
| Rodgers Flat | 7.9 miles | 25 |
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 Bucks Lake | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2564272 | 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 1853378. 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.










