Mountain Ranch, California
28 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1889 and the latest in 1993. It stands in the San Andreas census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95246. It lies near Corral Gulch. The Survey maps it on the Calaveritas quadrangle. 223 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,123 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1889 to 1993The same ground, surveyed 104 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 figuresMountain Ranch fell from 1,628 to 223 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 | 1,628 | |
| 2020 | 223 | -1,405 (-86%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
13 surveys from 28 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.
- 1889 USGS Jackson quadrangle1:125000
- 1892 USGS Jackson quadrangle1:125000
- 1897 USGS Jackson quadrangle1:125000
- 1902 USGS Jackson quadrangle1:125000, 7 printings
- 1945 USGS San Andreas quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1947 USGS San Andreas quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1948 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1962 USGS Calaveritas quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1962 USGS San Andreas quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1993 USGS San Andreas quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
232 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 232 fires within 5 miles of Mountain Ranch between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,362 acres in total. 9 started naturally. 9 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 100 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 52 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 42 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 9 |
| Natural | 9 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 8 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 5 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Firearms and explosives use | 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 | Central California District | LIGHTNING 35 |
| 9 September 1999 | Natural | under an acre | Central California District | LIGHTNING 23 |
| 8 September 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | CEDAR WY / JESUS MARIA RD |
| 7 September 2012 | Natural | under an acre | Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit | BAKER RILEY WY / JESUS MA |
| 7 September 2011 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 63 acres | Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit | FRECCERO |
| 6 September 2004 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | Central California District | EMIGRANT |
| 4 September 2008 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit | SWISS |
| 30 September 2011 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit | STARLIGHT |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 380 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 380 workings within 5 miles of Mountain Ranch: 145 past producers, 140 occurrences, 74 unknowns, 16 producers. 16 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Manganese, Asbestos, Gold, Silver. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine | Gold, Zinc, Lead | Past Producer | Gold, Pyrite | |
| Burns and O'Neill Property | Chromium | Producer | Chromite | |
| Carter | Talc-Soapstone | Occurrence | ||
| Cave City | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Unknown | ||
| Indian Creek Deposit | Iron | Occurrence | Sedimentary | |
| Mar John Mines Co. | Gold, Cobalt, Lead, Zinc | Past Producer | Galena, Gold, Pyrite, Sphalerite | |
| Quarry No 4 Calaveras | Limestone, Dimension | Occurrence | ||
| Sheep Ranch Mine | Silver, Gold, Iron, Zinc, Copper, Lead | Past Producer | 1867 | |
| Unknown | Cement Rock | Occurrence | ||
| Calaveras Cement Company | Gold, Silver | Past Producer |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cave City | 2.5 miles | 28 | |
| Sheep Ranch | 4.3 miles | 34 | |
| Fisher Place | 4.8 miles | 34 | |
| Calaveritas | 6.1 miles | 28 | |
| Indian Creek | 6.5 miles | 34 | |
| Fort Jones | 6.7 miles | 26 | |
| Jesus Maria | 6.9 miles | 29 | |
| Rocky Hill | 6.9 miles | 34 |
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 Mountain Ranch | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2155376 | 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 229196. 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.












