Loyalton, California
24 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1890 and the latest in 2000. It stands in the East Sierra census division. It lies in ZIP code area 96118. The Survey maps it on the Loyalton quadrangle. 740 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,951 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1890 to 2000The same ground, surveyed 110 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 figuresLoyalton fell from 1,030 to 740 between 1980 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 1,030 | |
| 2010 | 769 | |
| 2020 | 740 | -29 (-4%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 24 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.
- 1890 USGS Sierraville quadrangle1:125000
- 1892 USGS Sierraville quadrangle1:125000
- 1894 USGS Sierraville quadrangle1:125000, 9 printings
- 1955 USGS Loyalton quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1960 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000
- 1979 USGS Portola quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1981 USGS Loyalton quadrangle1:24000
- 2000 USGS Loyalton quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
95 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 95 fires within 5 miles of Loyalton between 1992 and 2020, burning about 47,506 acres in total. 69 started naturally. 2 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 |
|---|---|
| Natural | 69 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 6 |
| Debris and open burning | 6 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 4 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Smoking | 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 | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | PALEN |
| 7 September 2017 | Natural | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | MARTIN |
| 6 September 2017 | Natural | 84 acres | Tahoe National Forest | RANCH |
| 6 September 1998 | Natural | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | BUDDY |
| 4 September 2019 | Natural | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | SMITHNECK |
| 3 September 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | LANDFILL |
| 29 September 2004 | Natural | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | ELEPHANT |
| 17 September 1992 | Natural | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | MADIGAN |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Loyalton: 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Copper. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antelope Neck Mine | Copper | Prospect |
Storms near this place
3 since 2014Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Loyalton in 3 storm reports between 2014 and 2023: 1 hail, 1 heavy rain, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2023 | Flood | Loyalton | - | The public reported 4.0 mi ENE of Sattley, CA, of flooding along CA-49 from Sierraville, CA, and Loyalton, CA. Most of the flooding is due to the berms blocking the flow of water off the roadway. It was only 1-3 inches deep in most locations. |
| May 2018 | Heavy Rain | Loyalton | - | Mesonet station TT142, 6 miles north-northwest of Stampede Reservoir (elevation 6260 feet) reported 1.14 inches of rainfall from 16 May 0635PST to 17 May 0435PST. |
| July 2014 | Hail | Loyalton | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sierra Brooks | 2.7 miles | 24 | |
| Sierraville | 9.0 miles | 24 | |
| Campbell Hot Springs | 9.0 miles | 24 | |
| Randolph | 9.6 miles | 24 | |
| Calpine | 10.5 miles | 24 | |
| Sattley | 10.7 miles | 24 | |
| Antelope (historical) | 11.1 miles | 25 | |
| Peavine | 12.4 miles | 25 |
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 Loyalton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q940711 | 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 277550. 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.








