BlockBefore

La Palma, California

49 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1896 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the Anaheim-Santa Ana-Garden Grove census division. It lies in ZIP code area 90623. It stands on Moody Creek. The Survey maps it on the Los Alamitos quadrangle. 15,581 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 46 feet above sea level.

La Palma within Orange County

Then and now

1896 to 1981

The same ground, surveyed 85 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of La Palma, surveyed 1981
Topographic sheet of La Palma, surveyed 1896

Compare 1896 against another survey:

Population over time

3 figures

La Palma grew from 622 to 15,581 between 1960 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
1960622
201015,568
202015,581+13 (+0%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

21 surveys from 49 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

273 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 273 fires within 5 miles of La Palma between 2005 and 2020, burning about 4,540 acres in total. None started naturally. 47 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/undetermined156
Arson/incendiarism47
Smoking30
Equipment and vehicle use17
Misuse of fire by a minor15
Debris and open burning6
Power generation/transmission/distribution2

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
8 September 2009Arson/incendiarismunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
7 September 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
6 September 2009Arson/incendiarismunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
6 September 2007Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
5 September 2018Arson/incendiarismunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
30 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
3 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
25 September 2007Smokingunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Orange County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of La Palma: 1 past producer, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Clay. 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
Santa Fe Springs PlantClayProducer
Torrance Brick Co - Torr Plant No 1ClayPast ProducerSedimentary

Every working recorded in Orange 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
Moody0.6 miles49
Bingham0.7 miles49
Halcon1.6 miles49
Shirley1.9 miles49
Cypress2.1 miles49
Hansen2.8 miles49
La Belle Fontane Estates2.8 miles44
Buena Park3.0 miles44

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 La PalmaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q595175The 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 1652737. 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.