BlockBefore

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.

Cartago within Inyo County

Then and now

1905 to 1994

The 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.

Topographic sheet of Cartago, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of Cartago, surveyed 1905

Population over time

2 figures

Cartago 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.

YearPeople Change
201092
202062-30 (-33%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

13 surveys from 29 printed sheets

Matched 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.

Fires near this place

27 since 1992

Regional 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
Natural14
Missing data/not specified/undetermined7
Equipment and vehicle use3
Other causes2
Debris and open burning1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
7 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Desert DistrictDIRTY SOCK
6 September 2003Natural1.0 acresInyo National ForestOLANCHA
29 September 2000Debris and open burningunder an acreCalifornia Desert DistrictWALKER
25 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCentral California DistrictSPOT
11 September 2008Natural1.0 acresInyo National ForestMAZOURKA
10 September 1997Natural55 acresInyo National ForestTUNAWEE
30 August 2017Naturalunder an acreInyo National ForestOLANCHA
2 August 1993Naturalunder an acreInyo National Forestnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Inyo County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 12 shown

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Caffee Manganese MineManganeseProspect
Holiday ClaimsTungstenProspect
Owens Lake MineSodiumProspect
Owens Lake PitSodiumPast Producer
TateTungstenUnknown
Materials Site #165Sand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Materials Site #290Sand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Materials Site #291Sand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Muah MountainCopperUnknown
OlanchaCopperUnknown

Every working recorded in Inyo County

Storms near this place

5 since 2011

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2011Flash FloodCartago$25,000Highway 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 2023Flash FloodCartago$2,000A 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 2022Flash FloodCartago$2,000Hwy 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 2025FloodCartago$1,000There was minor flooding on Highway 395 at Lone Willow Dip.
November 2025FloodCartago$100There was minor flooding of Highway 395 near Ash Creek Road.

Every storm recorded in Inyo County

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 PlaceDistance Sheets
Olancha2.9 miles29
Grant4.8 miles26
Bartlett10.8 miles30
Haiwee12.3 miles28
Keeler14.0 miles27
Swansea15.5 miles28
Mock16.1 miles28
Talus16.4 miles28

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 CartagoAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2482976The 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.