Grass Valley, California
28 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1998. It stands in the Grass Valley census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95945. It stands on South Fork Wolf Creek. The Survey maps it on the Grass Valley quadrangle. 14,016 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,411 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1888 to 1998The same ground, surveyed 110 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


On record in Grass Valley
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 4 records
Empire Minelisted 1977
Grass Valley Public Librarylisted 1992
Mount St. Mary's Academy and Conventlisted 1974
North Star Houselisted 2011
Population over time
2 figuresGrass Valley grew from 12,860 to 14,016 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 | 12,860 | |
| 2020 | 14,016 | +1,156 (+9%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
13 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.
- 1888 USGS Smartsville quadrangle1:125000
- 1891 USGS Smartsville quadrangle1:125000
- 1892 USGS Smartsville quadrangle1:125000
- 1894 USGS Smartsville quadrangle1:125000
- 1895 USGS Smartsville quadrangle1:125000, 6 printings
- 1949 USGS Grass Valley quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1949 USGS Grass Valley quadrangle1:62500, 5 printings
- 1950 USGS Grass Valley quadrangle1:24000
- 1958 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1960 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000
- 1993 USGS Yuba City quadrangle1:100000
- 1995 USGS Grass Valley quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1998 USGS Grass Valley quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
925 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 925 fires within 5 miles of Grass Valley between 1992 and 2020, burning about 3,071 acres in total. 13 started naturally. 39 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 | 361 |
| Debris and open burning | 223 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 160 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 47 |
| Smoking | 42 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 39 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 26 |
| Natural | 13 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 11 |
| Other causes | 3 |
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 2019 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit | SNMH CRISIS STABILIZATION |
| 9 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | GOLDEN |
| 9 September 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Central California District | THORNICROFT |
| 9 September 2000 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Central California District | ADAMS |
| 9 September 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit | CAREY |
| 8 September 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Central California District | UNNAMED FIRE 1886 |
| 7 September 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit | HWY 20 / DORSEY DR |
| 7 September 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit | HARD |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 987 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 987 workings within 5 miles of Grass Valley: 534 past producers, 337 occurrences, 82 unknowns, 18 producers. 18 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Chromium, Silver, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Prospect | Copper, Lead, Zinc, Silver, Gold, Antimony, Sulfur, Arsenic | Past Producer | 1904 | |
| Brunswick | Gold, Zinc, Lead, Copper, Silver | Past Producer | Chalcopyrite, Galena, Gold, Pyrite, Sphalerite | |
| Bullion Con | Gold, Lead, Tungsten | Past Producer | Galena, Gold, Pyrite, Scheelite | |
| Canada Hill | Gold, Silver, Copper, Zinc, Lead, Antimony, Arsenic, Tin | Past Producer | Chalcopyrite, Galena, Gold, Pyrite, Sphalerite, Stibnite | |
| Champion Con Qtz | Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead, Zinc | Past Producer | Underground | |
| Empire Star | Gold, Lead, Arsenic, Zinc | Unknown | ||
| Grass Valley District | Tungsten, Gold | Producer | 1915 | |
| Green Lode | Gold, Lead, Silver | Past Producer | Unknown | |
| Mountaineer | Gold, Silver, Lead, Zinc, Copper | Past Producer | Chalcopyrite, Gold, Pyrite | |
| North Star | Gold, Stone, Crushed/Broken | Occurrence |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hills Flat | 0.5 miles | 28 | |
| Alta Vista Park | 0.6 miles | 28 | |
| Cypress Hill | 0.7 miles | 28 | |
| Boston Ravine | 0.9 miles | 28 | |
| Sunrise Heights | 1.0 miles | 28 | |
| The Oaks | 1.1 miles | 28 | |
| Sahl Court | 1.1 miles | 28 | |
| Ridge View | 1.1 miles | 28 |
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 Grass Valley | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q834337 | 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 277525. 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.












