Elk, California
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1943 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the Mendocino census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95432. It lies near Wharf Rock. The Survey maps it on the Elk quadrangle. It stands 135 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1943 to 1981The same ground, surveyed 38 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 17 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.
- 1943 USGS Navarro quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1944 USGS Saddle Point quadrangle1:62500
- 1957 USGS Ukiah quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS Elk quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS Ukiah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Navarro quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1981 USGS Ukiah quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
Fires near this place
35 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 35 fires within 5 miles of Elk between 1993 and 2018, burning about 34 acres in total. 1 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 18 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 9 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 3 |
| Debris and open burning | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Natural | 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 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Mendocino Unit | YOUNG |
| 3 September 2003 | Natural | under an acre | Mendocino Unit | BIRD |
| 26 September 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 3.0 acres | Mendocino Unit | KINNEY |
| 9 August 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Northern California District | GREEN |
| 9 August 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Mendocino Unit | NAVARRO |
| 6 August 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | NAVARRO BEACH ELK |
| 4 August 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Northern California District | GREENWOOD |
| 22 August 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | CREEK |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
4 since 2016Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Elk in 4 storm reports between 2016 and 2025: 4 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2025 | Flood | Elk | - | Highway 128 flooded and closed due to the Navarro River. Flood stage reached briefly on the gauge. |
| February 2024 | Flood | Elk | - | The Navarro River exceeded flood stage and closed Highway 128. |
| February 2024 | Flood | Elk | - | Navarro River exceeded flood stage causing flooding on Highway 128 and its closure. |
| December 2016 | Flood | Elk | - | California Route 128 closed along the Navarro River. This highway is one of two primary routes from the coast to interior areas of southern Mendocino County. No damage reported to the roadway. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cape Horn | 4.4 miles | 17 | |
| Whitesboro | 6.3 miles | 13 | |
| Albion | 7.0 miles | 13 | |
| Navarro | 9.4 miles | 15 | |
| Little River | 10.4 miles | 16 | |
| Reilly Heights | 10.8 miles | 15 | |
| Melbourne | 11.1 miles | 14 | |
| Manchester | 11.2 miles | 19 |
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 Elk | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q5363956 | 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 1655992. 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.
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.






