Cartago, California
29 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1905 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Lone Pine census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93549. It stands on Braley Creek. The Survey maps it on the Olancha quadrangle. 62 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,629 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1905 to 1994The same ground, surveyed 89 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 figuresCartago fell from 92 to 62 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 | 92 | |
| 2020 | 62 | -30 (-33%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
13 surveys from 29 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.
- 1905 USGS Olancha quadrangle1:125000
- 1907 USGS Olancha quadrangle1:125000, 9 printings
- 1948 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Olancha quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1966 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1978 USGS Three Rivers quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1988 USGS Olancha quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1994 USGS Olancha quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
27 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 27 fires within 5 miles of Cartago between 1992 and 2019, burning about 396 acres in total. 14 started naturally. None 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 |
|---|---|
| Natural | 14 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Other causes | 2 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Desert District | DIRTY SOCK |
| 6 September 2003 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Inyo National Forest | OLANCHA |
| 29 September 2000 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | California Desert District | WALKER |
| 25 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Central California District | SPOT |
| 11 September 2008 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Inyo National Forest | MAZOURKA |
| 10 September 1997 | Natural | 55 acres | Inyo National Forest | TUNAWEE |
| 30 August 2017 | Natural | under an acre | Inyo National Forest | OLANCHA |
| 2 August 1993 | Natural | under an acre | Inyo National Forest | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 12 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 12 workings within 5 miles of Cartago: 3 unknowns, 3 producers, 3 prospects, 2 occurrences. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Copper, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Tungsten, Sodium. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caffee Manganese Mine | Manganese | Prospect | ||
| Holiday Claims | Tungsten | Prospect | ||
| Owens Lake Mine | Sodium | Prospect | ||
| Owens Lake Pit | Sodium | Past Producer | ||
| Tate | Tungsten | Unknown | ||
| Materials Site #165 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Materials Site #290 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Materials Site #291 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Muah Mountain | Copper | Unknown | ||
| Olancha | Copper | Unknown |
Storms near this place
5 since 2011Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cartago in 5 storm reports between 2011 and 2025: 3 flash flood, 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2011 | Flash Flood | Cartago | $25,000 | Highway 190 was closed from Highway 395 to Highway 127 - a distance of 187 miles. Dante's View Road and Twenty Mule Team Road were also closed by flooding. |
| August 2023 | Flash Flood | Cartago | $2,000 | A slide of mud and gravel covered Highway 395 at Ash Creek Rd. Mud flowed heavily along the side of the highway and into part of the southbound lanes. Due to ongoing flooding in multiple places, Highway 395 was eventually closed all the way from Bishop to Pearsonville overnight. |
| September 2022 | Flash Flood | Cartago | $2,000 | Hwy 395 was flooded at Lone Willow Dip (in addition to the Olancha Ln flooding also documented in this episode), stranding 50 to 100 cars between the two flooded areas. |
| February 2025 | Flood | Cartago | $1,000 | There was minor flooding on Highway 395 at Lone Willow Dip. |
| November 2025 | Flood | Cartago | $100 | There was minor flooding of Highway 395 near Ash Creek Road. |
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.
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 Cartago | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2482976 | 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 1660442. 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.












