Forest Ranch, California
27 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1891 and the latest in 1995. It stands in the Paradise census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95942. The Survey maps it on the Cohasset quadrangle. 1,304 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,415 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1891 to 1995The same ground, surveyed 104 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1891 against another survey:
Population over time
2 figuresForest Ranch grew from 1,184 to 1,304 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 | 1,184 | |
| 2020 | 1,304 | +120 (+10%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 27 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 Chico quadrangle1:125000
- 1893 USGS Chico quadrangle1:125000
- 1895 USGS Chico quadrangle1:125000, 8 printings
- 1953 USGS Paradise quadrangle1:62500, 5 printings
- 1958 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1960 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000
- 1979 USGS Cohasset quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1980 USGS Chico quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1995 USGS Cohasset quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
432 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 432 fires within 5 miles of Forest Ranch between 1992 and 2020, burning about 16,290 acres in total. 29 started naturally. 71 were 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 | 119 |
| Debris and open burning | 92 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 71 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 67 |
| Natural | 29 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 18 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 18 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 11 |
| Smoking | 6 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 5.0 acres | Northern California District | NIMSHEW |
| 9 September 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Butte Unit | JACK |
| 8 September 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Northern California District | RAMBLING |
| 8 September 2001 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Northern California District | STEIFFER |
| 7 September 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Butte Unit | COHASSET |
| 7 September 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Northern California District | CARNEGIE |
| 6 September 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Butte Unit | CINDY 1 |
| 5 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Butte Unit | NIMSHEW |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 69 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 69 workings within 5 miles of Forest Ranch: 26 past producers, 23 unknowns, 15 occurrences, 5 producers. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Silver, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Copper. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anti-Axis Claim | Chromium | Past Producer | Chromite | |
| Anti-Axis Claim | Chromium, Iron | Past Producer | 1942, 1943 | |
| Mickey Deposit | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Unknown | ||
| Nimshew | Gold, Platinum | Producer | 1848 | |
| Wyoming Mine | Gold, Copper | Past Producer | Gold, Limonite | |
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Sloat Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Banker | Gold, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| Cory Mining Co | Gold, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| Delta | Gold, Silver | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
1 since 2019Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Forest Ranch in 1 storm report in 2019: 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2019 | Heavy Rain | Forest Ranch | - | About 0.90 inches of rain fell from 4 pm to 5 pm on the northern edge of the Camp Fire in Butte County, 0.95 inches from 3:50 pm to 5:11 pm. |
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 Forest Ranch | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3458766 | 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 260256. 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.








