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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.

Loyalton within Sierra County

Then and now

1890 to 2000

The 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.

Topographic sheet of Loyalton, surveyed 2000
Topographic sheet of Loyalton, surveyed 1890

Population over time

3 figures

Loyalton 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.

YearPeople Change
19801,030
2010769
2020740-29 (-4%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 24 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

95 since 1992

Regional 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
Natural69
Missing data/not specified/undetermined7
Equipment and vehicle use6
Debris and open burning6
Misuse of fire by a minor4
Arson/incendiarism2
Smoking1

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
9 September 1999Naturalunder an acreTahoe National ForestPALEN
7 September 2017Naturalunder an acreTahoe National ForestMARTIN
6 September 2017Natural84 acresTahoe National ForestRANCH
6 September 1998Naturalunder an acreTahoe National ForestBUDDY
4 September 2019Naturalunder an acreTahoe National ForestSMITHNECK
3 September 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreTahoe National ForestLANDFILL
29 September 2004Naturalunder an acreTahoe National ForestELEPHANT
17 September 1992Naturalunder an acreTahoe National ForestMADIGAN

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Sierra County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Antelope Neck MineCopperProspect

Every working recorded in Sierra County

Storms near this place

3 since 2014

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
March 2023FloodLoyalton-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 2018Heavy RainLoyalton-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 2014HailLoyalton-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Sierra 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
Sierra Brooks2.7 miles24
Sierraville9.0 miles24
Campbell Hot Springs9.0 miles24
Randolph9.6 miles24
Calpine10.5 miles24
Sattley10.7 miles24
Antelope (historical)11.1 miles25
Peavine12.4 miles25

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 LoyaltonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q940711The 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.