Harbison Canyon, California
38 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1997. It stands in the San Diego census division. It lies in ZIP code area 92019. It lies near Galloway Valley. The Survey maps it on the Alpine quadrangle. 4,048 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 906 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1893 to 1997The 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 1893 against another survey:
Population over time
2 figuresHarbison Canyon grew from 3,841 to 4,048 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 | 3,841 | |
| 2020 | 4,048 | +207 (+5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
17 surveys from 38 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.
- 1893 USGS El Cajon quadrangle1:62500
- 1893 USGS Elcajon quadrangle1:62500
- 1901 USGS Elcajon quadrangle1:62500
- 1903 USGS Cuyamaca quadrangle1:125000, 6 printings
- 1903 USGS El Cajon quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1903 USGS Elcajon quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1904 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 2 quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1939 USGS El Cajon quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1942 USGS El Cajon quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS El Cajon quadrangle1:62500
- 1950 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:250000
- 1954 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS Alpine quadrangle1:24000, 5 printings
- 1955 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1979 USGS El Cajon quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1997 USGS Alpine quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
643 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 643 fires within 5 miles of Harbison Canyon between 1992 and 2020, burning about 22,239 acres in total. 11 started naturally. 40 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 | 311 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 157 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 40 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 35 |
| Debris and open burning | 34 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 28 |
| Smoking | 21 |
| Natural | 11 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Other causes | 2 |
| 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 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | San Diego Unit | TAVERN RD |
| 8 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | San Diego Unit | VISTA DE LA MONTANA D 3 |
| 8 September 2011 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1.0 acres | San Diego Unit | SUMMIT 2 |
| 8 September 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Diego Unit | BLOSSOM |
| 8 September 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Cleveland National Forest | EL_MONTE_#2 |
| 8 September 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Diego Unit | JENNINGS |
| 7 September 2000 | Natural | 1.0 acres | San Diego Unit | TREE |
| 7 September 2000 | Natural | under an acre | San Diego Unit | LIGHTENING |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 30 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 30 workings within 5 miles of Harbison Canyon: 12 past producers, 8 occurrences, 6 producers, 3 prospects. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Molybdenum, Feldspar, Stone, Dimension. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fletcher Deposit | Uranium, Thorium | Prospect | ||
| Hoover Lakeside,Tunner | Gemstone | Producer | ||
| Old Noble Mine | Gold, Silver | Unknown | ||
| Red Rose Quarry | Quartz | Producer | ||
| Clemens Granite Co. Quarry | Granite | Past Producer | ||
| Dehesa Deposit | Stone, Dimension | Occurrence | ||
| Dehesa Dumortierite Deposit | Kyanite | Prospect | ||
| El Capitan Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Iron Master | Iron | Occurrence | Vein | |
| Iron Master | Iron | Prospect |
Storms near this place
3 since 2016Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Harbison Canyon in 3 storm reports between 2016 and 2024: 1 debris flow, 1 thunderstorm wind, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harbison Canyon | $2,000 | CHP reported two downed trees from a line of storms, wind gusts were estimated to be between 45 and 50 mph. |
| February 2024 | Heavy Rain | Harbison Canyon | - | Back-to-back atmospheric river events impacted San Diego County starting early on February 4th, with weather impacts occurring through much of the week, and finally ending on February 9th. Much of San Diego County received anywhere from 1.50-5.00 inches of rainfall. Coastal areas generally received 2-4 of rain including 2.85 at San Diego International Airport, 3.93 in Escondido, and between 4.00-4.50 near the Oceanside and Carlsbad areas. Mountainous areas received generally 2-7 of rain, while the deserts generally received between 0.15 and 0.90 of rain. Some notable localized higher totals include 8.27 at the San Onofre (SOFC1) site, 7.17 at the Lake Cuyamaca (CYDC1) site, 6.96 at the Camp Trgt Range RAWS (CTGC1) site, and 5.85 at the CPEN Fallbrook RAWS site (FBZC1). |
| January 2016 | Debris Flow | Harbison Canyon | - | A mudslide in the Rancho San Diego area of El Cajon on Willow Glen sent mud flowing into several homes and closed Dehesa Elementary School for at least 2 days. Nearby, the public reported 6 inches of mud across all lanes at Dehesa Road near Stallion Oaks Road. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glen Oaks | 1.9 miles | 38 | |
| La Cresta | 1.9 miles | 38 | |
| Suncrest | 2.1 miles | 38 | |
| Crest | 2.2 miles | 38 | |
| Alpine Heights | 2.6 miles | 38 | |
| Flinn Springs | 2.7 miles | 38 | |
| Dehesa | 2.9 miles | 38 | |
| Blossom Valley | 3.4 miles | 38 |
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 Harbison Canyon | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2041639 | 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 1660717. 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.
















