Kirkwood, California
32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1889 and the latest in 1992. It lies in ZIP code area 95646. It stands on Kirkwood Creek. The Survey maps it on the Caples Lake quadrangle. 190 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 7,690 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1889 to 1992The same ground, surveyed 103 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Population over time
3 figuresKirkwood grew from 96 to 190 between 2000 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 96 | |
| 2010 | 158 | +62 (+65%) |
| 2020 | 190 | +32 (+20%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
12 surveys from 32 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.
- 1889 USGS Pyramid Peak quadrangle1:125000
- 1891 USGS Pyramid Peak quadrangle1:125000
- 1895 USGS Pyramid Peak quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1896 USGS Pyramid Peak quadrangle1:125000, 7 printings
- 1947 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1948 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Silver Lake quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1976 USGS Placerville quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1979 USGS Caples Lake quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1992 USGS Caples Lake quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
Fires near this place
169 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 169 fires within 5 miles of Kirkwood between 1992 and 2020, burning about 3,489 acres in total. 86 started naturally. 1 was 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 |
|---|---|
| Natural | 86 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 47 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 18 |
| Debris and open burning | 8 |
| Smoking | 6 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 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 1999 | Natural | 1.5 acres | Eldorado National Forest | FORK |
| 9 September 1999 | Natural | 10 acres | Eldorado National Forest | JAKE |
| 7 September 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Eldorado National Forest | MARGARET |
| 6 September 2017 | Natural | under an acre | Eldorado National Forest | WOODS |
| 5 September 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit | ROUND |
| 5 September 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Eldorado National Forest | not named |
| 4 September 1998 | Natural | under an acre | Eldorado National Forest | BUTTE |
| 3 September 2010 | Natural | under an acre | Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit | DARDANELLES |
Specimens collected near this place
12 of 4,183 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 4,183 specimens collected within 10 miles of Kirkwood between 1863 and 1975: 3,796 Animalia, 196 Fungi, 181 Plantae, 7 Unrecorded, 3 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. A. Beetle, A. A. Heller, A. Bartel and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.
| Image | Species | Year | Collected by | Where, as recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Bryanthus breweri A.Gray | 1863 | William H. Brewer | Woods Peak, near Carson Pass |
![]() | Calamagrostis breweri Thurb. | 1863 | William H. Brewer | Near summit of Carson Pass |
![]() | Polygonum davisiae W.H.Brewer ex A.Gray | 1863 | William H. Brewer | Carson Pass. Near Camp 136 |
![]() | Loxia curvirostra bendirei Ridgway, 1884 | 1863 | Collector(s): James Graham Cooper | summit, Johnson's Pass, near Lake Tahoe |
![]() | Myadestes townsendi townsendi (Audubon, 1838) | 1863 | Collector(s): James Graham Cooper | Johnson's Pass, Sierra Nevada |
![]() | Picoides arcticus (Swainson, 1832) | 1863 | Collector(s): James Graham Cooper | summit Johnson's Pass |
| Pinicola enucleator californica Price, 1897 | 1863 | Collector(s): James Graham Cooper | summit, Johnson's Pass | |
![]() | Poecile gambeli abbreviatus | 1863 | Collector(s): James Graham Cooper | summit, Johnson's Pass |
![]() | Rana sierrae Camp, 1917 | 1863 | Collector(s): Tracy I. Storer, James Graham Cooper | summit Johnson's Pass, Sierra Nevada |
![]() | Regulus satrapa olivaceus S.F.Baird, 1864 | 1863 | Collector(s): James Graham Cooper | summit Johnson's Pass |
![]() | Sambucus melanocarpa A.Gray | 1863 | William H. Brewer | Near summit of Carson Pass |
![]() | Selaginella watsonii Underw. | 1863 | William H. Brewer | Carson Pass |
All 4,183 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Mines and quarries near this place
7 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Kirkwood: 4 past producers, 1 prospect, 1 occurrence, 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead, Silver, Copper, Copper, Lead. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round Top | Gold, Silver, Copper | Past Producer | ||
| Round Top | Gold, Copper, Lead | Prospect | ||
| Twin Lakes Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Unknown | ||
| Winnemucca Lake | Molybdenum | Occurrence | ||
| Lost Cabin | Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead | Past Producer | Chalcopyrite, Pyrite | |
| Lost Cabin | Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead | Past Producer | ||
| Unidentified Mine | Gold | Past Producer | Gold |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sorensens | 10.3 miles | 31 | |
| Shay Creek Summer Home Area | 12.7 miles | 28 | |
| Woodfords | 14.3 miles | 28 | |
| Alpine Village | 14.3 miles | 28 | |
| Marklee Village | 14.6 miles | 28 | |
| Markleeville | 15.5 miles | 28 | |
| Cape Horn | 15.7 miles | 27 | |
| Lake Alpine | 15.9 miles | 30 |
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 Kirkwood | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2171000 | 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 262202. 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.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
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.






















