Lake City, California
22 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1993. It stands in the Surprise Valley census division. It lies in ZIP code area 96115. It lies in Lake City Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Lake City quadrangle. 71 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,626 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1886 to 1993The same ground, surveyed 107 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Population over time
2 figuresLake City grew from 61 to 71 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 | 61 | |
| 2020 | 71 | +10 (+16%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 22 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.
- 1886 USGS Alturas quadrangle1:250000
- 1892 USGS Alturas quadrangle1:250000, 7 printings
- 1954 USGS Alturas quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Alturas quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Alturas quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Cedarville quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1965 USGS Alturas quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS Cedarville quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1990 USGS Lake City quadrangle1:24000
- 1993 USGS Lake City quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
32 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 32 fires within 5 miles of Lake City between 1992 and 2018, burning about 10 acres in total. 23 started naturally. None 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 | 23 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Debris and open burning | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 September 2003 | Natural | under an acre | Modoc National Forest | COOK |
| 5 September 2003 | Natural | under an acre | Modoc National Forest | COOK#2 |
| 7 August 2013 | Natural | under an acre | Modoc National Forest | MDF WM FANDANGO |
| 6 August 2013 | Natural | under an acre | Modoc National Forest | MDF WM HALLS |
| 4 August 1994 | Natural | under an acre | Modoc National Forest | SIMPSON |
| 19 August 2004 | Natural | under an acre | Modoc National Forest | BOYD |
| 15 August 2006 | Natural | under an acre | Modoc National Forest | LAKE 2 |
| 15 August 2006 | Natural | under an acre | Modoc National Forest | 677 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
3 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Lake City: 3 unknowns. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Geothermal. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surprise Valley | Geothermal | Unknown | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown |
Storms near this place
5 since 2012Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lake City in 5 storm reports between 2012 and 2021: 3 heavy rain, 1 thunderstorm wind, 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2021 | Heavy Rain | Lake City | - | COOPs observers and Mesonet/ASOS sites reported rainfall amounts ranging from 0.3-1.0 in the far NE corner of Modoc county in and around Fort Bidwell, CA, as well as 1.0 -2.0 within the area from Cedarville, CA to Lake City, CA. |
| April 2019 | Flash Flood | Lake City | - | Modoc County District 1 Supervisor reported flash flooding in Lake City from the night of 8 April to the morning of 9 April due to heavy rain and snowmelt. At least one residential community was temporarily isolated due to a washed-out road section. The timing of the flood is approximate and no information was available regarding damage to property in the area. |
| April 2019 | Heavy Rain | Lake City | - | Remote Automated Weather System SSYC1 4 miles east-southeast of Lake City reported 0.85 inches of rainfall in a 16 hour period from 8 April 1039PST to 9 April 0239PST. RAWS elevation 4591 feet MSL. |
| April 2019 | Heavy Rain | Lake City | - | Snow Telemetry Station CDRC1 at Cedar Pass reported 0.90 inches of rainfall in a 14 hour period from 8 April 1200PST to 9 April 0200PST. SNOTEL elevation 7030 feet MSL. |
| April 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | This wind gust was measured by the Surprise Valley RAWS. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cedarville | 8.2 miles | 22 | |
| Davis Creek | 10.3 miles | 22 | |
| Surprise Station | 12.6 miles | 22 | |
| Fort Bidwell | 15.4 miles | 23 | |
| Fletcher Place | 17.1 miles | 22 | |
| Willow Ranch | 19.4 miles | 22 | |
| Daphnedale Park | 19.7 miles | 22 | |
| Alturas | 20.3 miles | 24 |
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 Lake City | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q6475351 | 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 262284. 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.









