Menlo Park, California
51 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1897 and the latest in 1997. It stands in the San Mateo census division. It lies in ZIP code area 94025. The Survey maps it on the Palo Alto quadrangle. 33,780 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 72 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1897 to 1997The same ground, surveyed 100 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1897 against another survey:
On record in Menlo Park
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 3 records
Church of the Nativitylisted 1980
Menlo Park Railroad Stationlisted 1974- Barron-Latham-Hopkins Gate Lodgelisted 1986
Population over time
3 figuresMenlo Park grew from 2,254 to 33,780 between 1930 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1930 | 2,254 | |
| 2010 | 32,026 | |
| 2020 | 33,780 | +1,754 (+5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
22 surveys from 51 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.
- 1897 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500
- 1899 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500, 11 printings
- 1902 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:125000, 9 printings
- 1941 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500
- 1943 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1948 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500
- 1948 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1953 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1961 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1991 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1997 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
214 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 214 fires within 5 miles of Menlo Park between 1992 and 2020, burning about 104 acres in total. None started naturally. 18 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 | 131 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 26 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 18 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 13 |
| Smoking | 13 |
| Debris and open burning | 8 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 3 |
| Other causes | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 6 September 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.2 acres | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | ALPINE |
| 6 September 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | PIPE |
| 5 September 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | not named |
| 5 September 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Santa Clara Unit | not named |
| 5 September 2009 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 30 September 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | NB HWY 280 / SAND HILL R |
| 26 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | EMERALD |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 20 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 20 workings within 5 miles of Menlo Park: 7 past producers, 7 producers, 5 unknowns, 1 occurrence. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Mercury, Gypsum-Anhydrite, Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ideal Cement Company | Limestone, General, Clay | Producer | ||
| Palo Alto Sewage Sludge | Gold, Silver, Phosphorus-Phosphates, Copper, Tin, Palladium | Occurrence | Ash | |
| Redwood City Operation | Halite | Producer | ||
| Granite Rock | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Granite Rock | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Kaiser Gypsum | Gypsum-Anhydrite | Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Kaiser Gypsum | Gypsum-Anhydrite | Past Producer | ||
| Redwood City Operation | Salt | Past Producer | ||
| Redwood City Plant | Salt | Producer | ||
| Challenge | Mercury | Past Producer | 1955 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linfield Oaks | 0.6 miles | 51 | |
| Stanford Park | 0.6 miles | 51 | |
| Park Forest | 0.6 miles | 51 | |
| Felton Gables | 0.7 miles | 51 | |
| Atherton | 1.0 miles | 51 | |
| Vintage Oaks | 1.0 miles | 51 | |
| Lindenwood | 1.1 miles | 51 | |
| Menlo Oaks | 1.2 miles | 51 |
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 Menlo Park | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q74195 | 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 1659108. 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.





















