French Gulch, California
26 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1890 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Southwest Shasta census division. It lies in ZIP code area 96033. It lies in French Gulch. The Survey maps it on the French Gulch quadrangle. 373 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,394 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1890 to 1984The same ground, surveyed 94 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


On record in French Gulch
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 2 records
French Gulch Historic Districtlisted 1972- Gladstone Houseslisted 1995
Population over time
2 figuresFrench Gulch grew from 346 to 373 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 | 346 | |
| 2020 | 373 | +27 (+8%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 26 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.
- 1890 USGS Red Bluff quadrangle1:250000
- 1894 USGS Red Bluff quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
- 1913 USGS Weaverville quadrangle1:125000, 6 printings
- 1944 USGS French Gulch quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1948 USGS French Gulch quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Redding quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1979 USGS French Gulch quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1984 USGS Redding quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
103 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 103 fires within 5 miles of French Gulch between 1992 and 2020, burning about 243,209 acres in total. 10 started naturally. 12 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 |
|---|---|
| Equipment and vehicle use | 26 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 17 |
| Debris and open burning | 13 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 12 |
| Natural | 10 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 9 |
| Smoking | 8 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 4 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 3 |
| 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 2010 | Natural | under an acre | Northern California District | SHU FORK |
| 9 September 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Shasta-Trinity Unit | FRENCH |
| 9 September 1998 | Natural | under an acre | Northern California District | LIGHTNING 33 |
| 6 September 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Whiskeytown National Recreation Area | BOTTOM |
| 28 September 1999 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Whiskeytown National Recreation Area | TRINITY2 |
| 25 September 1997 | Equipment and vehicle use | 125 acres | Whiskeytown National Recreation Area | TRINITYMTN |
| 2 September 1994 | Smoking | 6.0 acres | Shasta-Trinity Unit | BUCKHORN #2 |
| 2 September 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Whiskeytown National Recreation Area | OAK |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 136 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 136 workings within 5 miles of French Gulch: 79 past producers, 34 unknowns, 13 occurrences, 6 producers. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Copper, Silver, Lead, Zinc. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| American | Gold, Arsenic, Lead, Sulfur | Past Producer | Galena, Gold, Pyrite | |
| Amy Balch Mine | Gold, Iron | Past Producer | Gold, Ocher | |
| Grab | Copper, Gold, Silver, Zinc, Sulfur-Pyrite | Past Producer | 1848, 1916 | |
| Greenhorn | Copper, Silver, Gold | Past Producer | Replacement | |
| Lary Mine | Gold, Lead | Past Producer | Galena, Gold | |
| Niagara Group | Gold, Zinc, Lead | Past Producer | Galena, Gold, Sphalerite | |
| Philadelphia and Roosevelt | Lead, Silver, Copper | Past Producer | ||
| Rotero-Steven | Chromium | Occurrence | ||
| Salt Springs No. 1 | Geothermal | Unknown | ||
| St. Jude | Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead, Zinc | Past Producer | Galena, Gold, Pyrite |
Storms near this place
1 since 2018Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names French Gulch in 1 storm report in 2018: 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2018 | Flood | French Gulch | - | Rock slide was reported on State Route 299 east of Buckhorn Summit. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oak Bottom (historical) | 4.6 miles | 26 | |
| Whiskeytown | 6.0 miles | 26 | |
| Iron Mountain | 6.4 miles | 26 | |
| Minnesota | 8.4 miles | 31 | |
| Motion | 9.6 miles | 31 | |
| Paige Bar | 9.7 miles | 27 | |
| Matheson | 9.7 miles | 31 | |
| Shasta | 10.4 miles | 29 |
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 French Gulch | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2612837 | 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 223907. 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.







