Lake Forest, California
47 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1901 and the latest in 1997. It stands in the Irvine-Lake Forest census division. It lies in ZIP code area 92630. It lies near English Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Lake Forest quadrangle. 85,858 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 486 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1901 to 1997The same ground, surveyed 96 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1901 against another survey:
On record in Lake Forest
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 within a mile 1 record
The National Register names another town for these. They stand within one mile of this settlement's coordinate.
Jose Serrano Adobelisted 1976 · 0.0 miles away
Population over time
3 figuresLake Forest grew from 58,707 to 85,858 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 | 58,707 | |
| 2010 | 77,264 | +18,557 (+32%) |
| 2020 | 85,858 | +8,594 (+11%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
17 surveys from 47 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.
- 1901 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 1 quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
- 1902 USGS Corona quadrangle1:125000, 7 printings
- 1904 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 1 quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1935 USGS El Toro quadrangle1:31680, 4 printings
- 1942 USGS Santiago Peak quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1947 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1949 USGS El Toro quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1949 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1950 USGS El Toro quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1965 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1968 USGS El Toro quadrangle1:24000, 9 printings
- 1974 USGS El Toro quadrangle1:24000
- 1983 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:100000
- 1997 USGS El Toro quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
161 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 161 fires within 5 miles of Lake Forest between 1997 and 2020, burning about 657 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 46 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 | 63 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 46 |
| Smoking | 19 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 13 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 12 |
| Natural | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 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 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Orange County Fire Authority | not named |
| 28 September 2018 | Smoking | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 28 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 27 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 25 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 20 September 2007 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 2 September 1997 | Equipment and vehicle use | 600 acres | Cleveland National Forest | SANTIAGO |
| 13 September 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 11 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 11 workings within 5 miles of Lake Forest: 5 producers, 4 past producers, 2 occurrences. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Clay, Limestone, General. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aliso Prospect | Diatomite | Occurrence | ||
| El Toro Deposit | Limestone, General, Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Santa Rosa Lead - Zinc | Lead, Zinc | Occurrence | ||
| Baker Ranch Extension | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Califorina Nonmetalics | Clay | Producer | ||
| Serrano Mine | Clay | Past Producer | ||
| Asbury El Toro, Ltd. | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| El Toro Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| El Toro Plant | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Gravel Pits | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
4 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lake Forest in 4 storm reports between 1993 and 2022: 2 wildfire, 1 tornado, 1 heavy rain. The reports record 1 injury. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 1993 | Tornado (F0) | Lake Forest | 1 hurt, $5,000,000 | A tornado ripped through a residential section, tearing shingles from roofs, uprooting trees and scattering debris over a several block area. There was damage to 31 homes. |
| July 2022 | Heavy Rain | Lake Forest | - | Heavy rain of 0.4 inch along I-5 from San Juan Capistrano to Lake Forest. Small street flooding along freeway on/offramps and local intersections. Several small traffic incidents, slowing traffic along I-5. |
| September 1998 | Wildfire | Lake Forest | - | no account filed |
| August 1998 | Wildfire | Lake Forest | - | no account filed |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serrano Place | 0.0 miles | 47 | |
| El Toro | 0.3 miles | 47 | |
| Laguna Hills | 2.7 miles | 37 | |
| Foothill Ranch | 3.1 miles | 47 | |
| Laguna Woods | 3.2 miles | 37 | |
| Mission Viejo | 3.4 miles | 37 | |
| Portola Hills | 3.8 miles | 47 | |
| Rancho Trabuco | 4.1 miles | 37 |
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 Forest | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q752671 | 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 1656503. 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.
















