Buttonwillow, California
25 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1910 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the Buttonwillow census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93206. The Survey maps it on the Buttonwillow quadrangle. 1,337 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 269 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1910 to 1981The same ground, surveyed 71 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 figuresButtonwillow fell from 1,508 to 1,337 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 | 1,508 | |
| 2020 | 1,337 | -171 (-11%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
12 surveys from 25 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.
- 1910 USGS Buena Vista Lake quadrangle1:125000
- 1912 USGS Buena Vista Lake quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1932 USGS Buttonwillow quadrangle1:31680, 3 printings
- 1942 USGS Buttonwillow quadrangle1:62500
- 1948 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Buttonwillow quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1966 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Taft quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
19 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 19 fires within 5 miles of Buttonwillow between 1995 and 2019, burning about 1,848 acres in total. None 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Smoking | 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 August 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 330 acres | Central California District | AIRPORT 1 |
| 8 August 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,100 acres | Central California District | AIRPORT 2 |
| 22 August 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | 5.4 acres | Central California District | 119 SPLIT |
| 13 August 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 355 acres | Central California District | AQUEDUCT |
| 21 July 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Kern County Fire Department | not named |
| 20 July 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.5 acres | Central California District | GOLF COURSE |
| 18 July 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4.0 acres | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 14 July 1995 | Smoking | 10 acres | Central California District | ELK #2 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Buttonwillow: 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elsey Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Fellows Quarry No. 1 | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
4 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Buttonwillow in 4 storm reports between 2009 and 2020: 2 flood, 1 funnel cloud, 1 hail. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2020 | Flood | Buttonwillow | - | California Highway Patrol reported roadway flooding on Buttonwillow Dr. at the intersection of Interstate 5. |
| February 2019 | Hail | Buttonwillow | - | Facebook posts indicating penny sized hail in Buttonwillow. Time estimate was based on radar. |
| January 2017 | Flood | Buttonwillow | - | California Highway Patrol reported roadway flooding on Lokern Road near Highway 58 west of Buttonwillow. |
| February 2009 | Funnel Cloud | Buttonwillow | - | A California Highway Patrol reported a funnel cloud near Buttonwillow. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kilowatt | 1.2 miles | 25 | |
| Bowerbank | 3.2 miles | 25 | |
| Lokern | 4.0 miles | 24 | |
| Stebbins | 8.2 miles | 27 | |
| Tupman | 9.5 miles | 26 | |
| Rio Bravo | 9.5 miles | 27 | |
| Asphalto (historical) | 9.6 miles | 24 | |
| Spicer City | 10.0 miles | 24 |
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 Buttonwillow | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2347141 | 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 1652678. 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.











