Downieville, California
28 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1891 and the latest in 2000. It stands in the West Sierra census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95936. It lies near Jersey Flat. The Survey maps it on the Downieville quadrangle. 290 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,966 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1891 to 2000The same ground, surveyed 109 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


On record in Downieville
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 5 records
Durgan Bridgelisted 2012
Hansen Bridgelisted 2012
Hospital Bridgelisted 2012
Jersey Bridgelisted 2012
Sierra County Sheriff's Gallowslisted 1990
Population over time
2 figuresDownieville grew from 282 to 290 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 | 282 | |
| 2020 | 290 | +8 (+3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 28 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.
- 1891 USGS Downieville quadrangle1:125000
- 1893 USGS Downieville quadrangle1:125000
- 1895 USGS Downieville quadrangle1:125000
- 1896 USGS Downieville quadrangle1:125000
- 1897 USGS Downieville quadrangle1:125000, 7 printings
- 1951 USGS Downieville quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1951 USGS Downieville quadrangle1:24000, 6 printings
- 1958 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1960 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000
- 1979 USGS Portola quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 2000 USGS Downieville quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
52 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 52 fires within 5 miles of Downieville between 1992 and 2019, burning about 270 acres in total. 27 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 | 27 |
| Debris and open burning | 6 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 6 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Other causes | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 September 2017 | Natural | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | SLATE |
| 25 September 2017 | Natural | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | MAMMOTH |
| 24 September 2001 | Natural | 2.0 acres | Tahoe National Forest | FIR |
| 19 September 2019 | Natural | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | MAMMOTH |
| 17 September 1996 | Natural | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | GRIZZLY |
| 16 September 1996 | Natural | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | YUBA |
| 14 September 2011 | Natural | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | GALLOWAY |
| 12 September 2017 | Natural | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | CASTLE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 263 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 263 workings within 5 miles of Downieville: 118 past producers, 64 occurrences, 46 producers, 18 unknowns. 46 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Silver, Chromium, Lead. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comet Mine | Gold, Copper | Past Producer | Gold | |
| Gold Point | Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead, Zinc | Past Producer | Gold, Silver | |
| Gold Point | Gold, Lead, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| North Fork Mine | Gold, Lead | Past Producer | Galena, Gold, Pyrite | |
| Occurrence | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Occurrence | ||
| Oxford Mine | Chromium, Iron | Past Producer | 1918 | |
| Reported Occurrence | Antimony | Occurrence | ||
| Secret Canyon | Gold, Manganese | Past Producer | Gold | |
| W W Casserely | Asbestos | Prospect | ||
| Casserly | Chromium | Prospect |
Storms near this place
1 since 2021Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Downieville in 1 storm report in 2021: 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2021 | Heavy Rain | Downieville | - | Heavy rain was reported in Sierra County. Reported storm totals reached 6.88 inches near Saddleback to 11.28 inches in Downieville. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oxford Mill | 0.9 miles | 28 | |
| Mount Vernon (historical) | 2.1 miles | 28 | |
| Monte Cristo (historical) | 3.0 miles | 28 | |
| Goodyears Bar | 3.3 miles | 27 | |
| Forest | 4.9 miles | 33 | |
| Eureka (historical) | 5.1 miles | 27 | |
| Unionville (historical) | 6.1 miles | 33 | |
| Alleghany | 6.3 miles | 33 |
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 Downieville | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2261383 | 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 259519. 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.










