BlockBefore

Keene, California

27 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1914 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Tehachapi census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93531. It stands on Water Canyon Creek. The Survey maps it on the Keene quadrangle. 469 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,602 feet above sea level.

Keene within Kern County

Then and now

1914 to 1992

The same ground, surveyed 78 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Keene, surveyed 1992
Topographic sheet of Keene, surveyed 1914

Compare 1914 against another survey:

On record in Keene

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 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Keene grew from 431 to 469 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.

YearPeople Change
2010431
2020469+38 (+9%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

11 surveys from 27 printed sheets

Matched 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.

Fires near this place

77 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 77 fires within 5 miles of Keene between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,745 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 2 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/undetermined38
Equipment and vehicle use19
Railroad operations and maintenance10
Debris and open burning5
Arson/incendiarism2
Natural1
Smoking1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreKern County Fire Departmentnot named
5 September 2008Equipment and vehicle use1.3 acresKern County Fire Departmentnot named
3 September 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresCentral California DistrictPICKUP
28 September 2019Equipment and vehicle use2.0 acresKern County Fire Departmentnot named
27 September 2007Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreKern County Fire Departmentnot named
26 September 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreKern County Fire Departmentnot named
25 September 2009Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresKern County Fire Departmentnot named
18 September 1999Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreCentral California DistrictUNNAMED FIRE 0488

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Kern County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 18 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 18 workings within 5 miles of Keene: 5 prospects, 5 past producers, 5 occurrences, 2 unknowns. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Mercury, Copper, Tungsten, Gold. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Helen-Joyce ProspectCopper, Lead, ZincProspect
Keene DepositLimestone, GeneralPast Producer
King Solomon ProspectZincProspect
Powell MineCopper, Lead, Silver, ZincProspect
Top of the WorldTungsten, AntimonyOccurrenceVein
Top of the World MineAntimonyProspect
Mayflower MineGoldProducer
Oracle ProspectTungstenOccurrence
Oracle ProspectTungstenUnknown
Shoestring ProspectGoldOccurrence

Every working recorded in Kern County

Storms near this place

2 since 2019

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Keene in 2 storm reports between 2019 and 2025: 1 debris flow, 1 flash 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
November 2025Flash FloodKeene-CHP reporting Woodford Tehachapi Rd / Woodford Ofr to be closed due to flooding.
January 2019Debris FlowKeene-Public reports of several large rocks on the Caliente Bodfish Road and Caliente Creek Road Fork northeast of Caliente.

Every storm recorded in Kern County

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 PlaceDistance Sheets
El Rita0.5 miles27
Woodford0.9 miles27
Rowen1.4 miles27
Walong2.2 miles27
Marcel3.3 miles27
Bealville4.8 miles32
Bear Valley Springs5.7 miles33
Caliente5.8 miles32

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 KeeneAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2658906The 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 1660828. 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.