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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.

Downieville within Sierra County

Then and now

1891 to 2000

The 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.

Topographic sheet of Downieville, surveyed 2000
Topographic sheet of Downieville, surveyed 1891

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

Population over time

2 figures

Downieville 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.

YearPeople Change
2010282
2020290+8 (+3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

11 surveys from 28 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

52 since 1992

Regional 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
Natural27
Debris and open burning6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined6
Recreation and ceremony6
Equipment and vehicle use4
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Smoking1
Other causes1

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
6 September 2017Naturalunder an acreTahoe National ForestSLATE
25 September 2017Naturalunder an acreTahoe National ForestMAMMOTH
24 September 2001Natural2.0 acresTahoe National ForestFIR
19 September 2019Naturalunder an acreTahoe National ForestMAMMOTH
17 September 1996Naturalunder an acreTahoe National ForestGRIZZLY
16 September 1996Naturalunder an acreTahoe National ForestYUBA
14 September 2011Naturalunder an acreTahoe National ForestGALLOWAY
12 September 2017Naturalunder an acreTahoe National ForestCASTLE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Sierra County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 263 shown

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Comet MineGold, CopperPast ProducerGold
Gold PointGold, Silver, Copper, Lead, ZincPast ProducerGold, Silver
Gold PointGold, Lead, SilverPast Producer
North Fork MineGold, LeadPast ProducerGalena, Gold, Pyrite
OccurrenceStone, Crushed/BrokenOccurrence
Oxford MineChromium, IronPast Producer1918
Reported OccurrenceAntimonyOccurrence
Secret CanyonGold, ManganesePast ProducerGold
W W CasserelyAsbestosProspect
CasserlyChromiumProspect

Every working recorded in Sierra County

Storms near this place

1 since 2021

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
October 2021Heavy RainDownieville-Heavy rain was reported in Sierra County. Reported storm totals reached 6.88 inches near Saddleback to 11.28 inches in Downieville.

Every storm recorded in Sierra 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
Oxford Mill0.9 miles28
Mount Vernon (historical)2.1 miles28
Monte Cristo (historical)3.0 miles28
Goodyears Bar3.3 miles27
Forest4.9 miles33
Eureka (historical)5.1 miles27
Unionville (historical)6.1 miles33
Alleghany6.3 miles33

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 DownievilleAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2261383The 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.