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.
Then and now
1886 to 1995The 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.


Compare 1886 against another survey:
Population over time
2 figuresPaynes 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 57 | |
| 2020 | 54 | -3 (-5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
14 surveys from 27 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.
- 1886 USGS Lassen Peak quadrangle1:250000
- 1892 USGS Lassen Peak quadrangle1:250000
- 1894 USGS Lassen Peak quadrangle1:250000, 8 printings
- 1935 USGS Paynes Creek quadrangle1:96000
- 1941 USGS Mineral quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Westwood quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Manton quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Westwood quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Westwood quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Susanville quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1968 USGS Susanville quadrangle1:250000
- 1985 USGS Inskip Hill quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1989 USGS Lake Almanor quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1995 USGS Inskip Hill quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
55 since 1992Regional 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 use | 19 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 17 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 8 |
| Natural | 5 |
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 September 1994 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Tehama-Glenn Unit | BUCKEYE |
| 29 September 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Tehama-Glenn Unit | LOOP IC/TAC3 |
| 26 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Tehama-Glenn Unit | 36 2 |
| 22 September 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Tehama-Glenn Unit | CALTRANS |
| 15 September 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 2.0 acres | Tehama-Glenn Unit | 36/TAC 3 |
| 12 September 2007 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Tehama-Glenn Unit | 36 |
| 8 August 2015 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 97 acres | Tehama-Glenn Unit | THIRTY SIX |
| 5 August 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Tehama-Glenn Unit | INSKIP |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payne Creek Pit | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Storms near this place
3 since 2024Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2025 | Flood | Paynes Creek | - | California Highway Patrol reported impassable conditions due to flooding and rocks in the roadway on Inskip Road and Lanes Valley Road. |
| September 2025 | Heavy Rain | Paynes 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 2024 | Debris Flow | Paynes 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. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wade Place | 2.7 miles | 27 | |
| McKenzie Place | 2.9 miles | 27 | |
| Meyers Place | 4.7 miles | 27 | |
| Marian Place | 5.3 miles | 27 | |
| McClure Place | 6.7 miles | 27 | |
| Dantuma Place | 6.7 miles | 27 | |
| Facht Place | 6.9 miles | 28 | |
| Finley Place | 7.1 miles | 27 |
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 Creek | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3476224 | 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 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.













