Maricopa, California
23 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1910 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the West Kern census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93252. It lies near Sunset Valley. The Survey maps it on the Maricopa quadrangle. 1,026 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 883 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1910 to 1981The same ground, surveyed 71 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 figuresMaricopa fell from 1,154 to 1,026 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 | 1,154 | |
| 2020 | 1,026 | -128 (-11%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
13 surveys from 23 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.
- 1910 USGS Buena Vista Lake quadrangle1:125000
- 1912 USGS Buena Vista Lake quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1943 USGS Maricopa quadrangle1:31680
- 1948 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1950 USGS Maricopa quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1951 USGS Maricopa quadrangle1:24000
- 1955 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1966 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000
- 1976 USGS Maricopa quadrangle1:24000
- 1981 USGS Taft quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
154 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 154 fires within 5 miles of Maricopa between 1993 and 2020, burning about 2,266 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 7 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 | 55 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 38 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 26 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 11 |
| Smoking | 8 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 7 |
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Natural | 3 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 1999 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Central California District | UNNAMED FIRE 0618 |
| 29 September 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Central California District | CULVER |
| 27 September 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 100 acres | Central California District | AMERICAN |
| 25 September 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Central California District | CADET |
| 22 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 20 September 1998 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Central California District | UNNAMED FIRE 0495 |
| 2 September 2008 | Smoking | 2.0 acres | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 17 September 2018 | Natural | 2.6 acres | Central California District | CHEVRON |
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 Maricopa: 8 past producers, 1 unknown, 1 occurrence, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Uranium, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Silica. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excel Mill | Fullers Earth | Producer | ||
| Maricopa Pit | Clay | Past Producer | ||
| Maricopa Prospect | Sulfur | Past Producer | ||
| Sunset | Gypsum-Anhydrite | Occurrence | ||
| Taft Pit | Silica | Past Producer | ||
| Geeslin-Fiscus Property | Uranium | Past Producer | ||
| J. W. Brown Rock Plant | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Landson Group | Uranium | Unknown | ||
| Lowes Southern Clay Pit | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Maricopa Pit | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
7 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Maricopa in 7 storm reports between 1998 and 2017: 3 heavy rain, 1 flood, 1 flash flood, 1 hail. 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 2000 | Heavy Rain | Maricopa | $100,000 | no account filed |
| February 2017 | Debris Flow | Maricopa | - | California Highway Patrol reported large boulders blocking westbound lanes from heavy rainfall of Highway 33 near Soda Lake Road about 13 miles south of Taft. |
| May 2016 | Heavy Rain | Maricopa | - | California Highway Patrol reported road flooding on SR166 between Soda Lake Road and Kern County line at 1616 PST. |
| May 2016 | Hail | Maricopa | - | California Highway Patrol reported hail covering road and causing vehicles to go off of the road on SR 166 between Soda Lake Road and the San Luis Obispo County line southwest of Maricopa at 1616 PST. |
| October 2015 | Flash Flood | Maricopa | - | Public reported flash flooding on state road 33 near Maricopa. This lead to the roadway closing. |
| March 1998 | Flood | Maricopa | - | Locally heavy rain led to runoff from the nearby Tehachapi Mountains flowing across Highway 166 east of Maricopa. The road was closed as a result of the flooding. No other damage reported. |
| March 2003 | Heavy Rain | Maricopa | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hazelton | 1.4 miles | 23 | |
| Pentland | 2.4 miles | 26 | |
| Spellacy | 5.3 miles | 23 | |
| San Emidio | 5.7 miles | 26 | |
| South Taft | 6.0 miles | 24 | |
| Taft Heights | 6.5 miles | 24 | |
| Taft | 6.5 miles | 24 | |
| Ford City | 7.2 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 Maricopa | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q984159 | 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 1652749. 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.












