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Paynes Creek, California

27 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1995. It stands in the East Tehama census division. It lies in ZIP code area 96075. It stands on North Fork Plum Creek. The Survey maps it on the Inskip Hill quadrangle. 54 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,949 feet above sea level.

Paynes Creek within Tehama County

Then and now

1886 to 1995

The same ground, surveyed 109 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Paynes Creek, surveyed 1995
Topographic sheet of Paynes Creek, surveyed 1886

Compare 1886 against another survey:

Population over time

2 figures

Paynes Creek fell from 57 to 54 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.

YearPeople Change
201057
202054-3 (-5%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

14 surveys from 27 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

55 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 55 fires within 5 miles of Paynes Creek between 1992 and 2020, burning about 4,365 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 8 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
Equipment and vehicle use19
Missing data/not specified/undetermined17
Arson/incendiarism8
Natural5
Debris and open burning4
Power generation/transmission/distribution2

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
3 September 1994Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreTehama-Glenn UnitBUCKEYE
29 September 2006Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresTehama-Glenn UnitLOOP IC/TAC3
26 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTehama-Glenn Unit36 2
22 September 1997Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreTehama-Glenn UnitCALTRANS
15 September 2007Arson/incendiarism2.0 acresTehama-Glenn Unit36/TAC 3
12 September 2007Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresTehama-Glenn Unit36
8 August 2015Power generation/transmission/distribution97 acresTehama-Glenn UnitTHIRTY SIX
5 August 1995Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreTehama-Glenn UnitINSKIP

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Tehama 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 Paynes Creek: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Payne Creek PitStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer

Every working recorded in Tehama County

Storms near this place

3 since 2024

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Paynes Creek in 3 storm reports between 2024 and 2025: 1 debris flow, 1 flood, 1 heavy rain. 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
January 2025FloodPaynes Creek-California Highway Patrol reported impassable conditions due to flooding and rocks in the roadway on Inskip Road and Lanes Valley Road.
September 2025Heavy RainPaynes Creek-Panther Springs RAWS measured 1.16 inches of heavy rain in 5 hours, and 0.67 inches of heavy rain in 1 hour with strong thunderstorms over the Tehama portion of the Park Fire burn scar.
December 2024Debris FlowPaynes Creek-California Highway Patrol a mud/dirt/rock slide on Highway 36 near Mile Marker 60.50, 4 miles west of Payne's Creek. Both lanes were blocked as a result.

Every storm recorded in Tehama 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
Wade Place2.7 miles27
McKenzie Place2.9 miles27
Meyers Place4.7 miles27
Marian Place5.3 miles27
McClure Place6.7 miles27
Dantuma Place6.7 miles27
Facht Place6.9 miles28
Finley Place7.1 miles27

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 Paynes CreekAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3476224The 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 230427. 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.