Lake San Marcos, California
40 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1996. It stands in the Oceanside-Escondido census division. It lies in ZIP code area 92078. It lies near Los Vallecitos. The Survey maps it on the San Marcos quadrangle. 5,328 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 525 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1893 to 1996The 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.


Compare 1893 against another survey:
Population over time
2 figuresLake San Marcos grew from 4,437 to 5,328 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 | 4,437 | |
| 2020 | 5,328 | +891 (+20%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
16 surveys from 40 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.
- 1893 USGS Escondido quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1901 USGS Escondido quadrangle1:62500, 6 printings
- 1901 USGS San Luis Rey quadrangle1:125000, 8 printings
- 1904 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 2 quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1942 USGS Escondido quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1948 USGS San Marcos quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1949 USGS San Marcos quadrangle1:24000
- 1949 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 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 San Marcos quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1982 USGS Oceanside quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1996 USGS San Marcos quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
239 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 239 fires within 5 miles of Lake San Marcos between 1992 and 2020, burning about 7,909 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 27 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 | 121 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 58 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 27 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 11 |
| Smoking | 7 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 6 |
| Debris and open burning | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
| Other causes | 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 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | San Diego Unit | ELISO |
| 8 September 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | San Diego Unit | WINTERHAVEN |
| 7 September 2005 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 7 September 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Diego Unit | HARMONY |
| 4 September 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 3 September 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | 6.3 acres | San Diego Unit | HARMONY |
| 3 September 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | San Diego Unit | not named |
| 3 September 1997 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.5 acres | San Diego Unit | HORIZON |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 22 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 22 workings within 5 miles of Lake San Marcos: 13 past producers, 3 prospects, 3 producers, 2 occurrences. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Clay, Copper, Granite. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Encinitas | Copper, Lead | Past Producer | Vein | |
| Kelly Ranch Mine | Stone, Dimension | Past Producer | ||
| Palagonite Deposit | Aluminum | Occurrence | ||
| San Marcos Quarry | Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Encinitas Mine | Copper | Past Producer | ||
| Escondido Quarries, Inc. | Granite | Producer | ||
| Escondido Quarries, Inc. | Granite | Past Producer | ||
| San Marcos Pit | Granite | Producer | ||
| Unnamed Deposit | Copper | Occurrence | ||
| Unnamed Prospect | Copper | Prospect |
Storms near this place
4 since 2017Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lake San Marcos in 4 storm reports between 2017 and 2021: 4 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2017 | Flood | Lake San Marcos | $10,000 | Street flooding was reported in San Marcos with at least one car submerged. |
| January 2021 | Flood | Lake San Marcos | - | Via Vera Cruz closed between Discovery Street and W. San Marcos Blvd through riverbed. |
| December 2021 | Flood | Lake San Marcos | - | Heavy rain at St. Mark golf club reported on twitter. 1.34 inches of rainfall measured with pictures of flooded golf course and parking lots. |
| April 2020 | Flood | Lake San Marcos | - | NWS Employee reports flooding at W San Marcos Blvd at Discovery Street. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Marcos | 2.5 miles | 40 | |
| Buena | 3.3 miles | 40 | |
| Ocean Hills | 3.6 miles | 48 | |
| La Costa | 3.9 miles | 50 | |
| Richland | 4.1 miles | 40 | |
| Elfin Forest | 4.3 miles | 43 | |
| Harmony Grove | 4.4 miles | 43 | |
| Twin Oaks | 5.0 miles | 40 |
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 San Marcos | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3008146 | 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 1660879. 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.















