Pine Hills, California
34 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1903 and the latest in 1997. It stands in the Palomar-Julian census division. It lies in ZIP code area 92036. It lies near Coleman Flat. The Survey maps it on the Santa Ysabel quadrangle.
Then and now
1903 to 1997The same ground, surveyed 94 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1903 against another survey:
Topographic sheets covering this place
14 surveys from 34 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.
- 1903 USGS Ramona quadrangle1:125000, 6 printings
- 1904 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 2 quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1939 USGS Santa Ysabel quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1943 USGS Santa Ysabel quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1949 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1960 USGS Santa Ysabel quadrangle1:24000, 5 printings
- 1960 USGS Santa Ysabel quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1965 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Borrego Valley quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1997 USGS Santa Ysabel quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
255 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 255 fires within 5 miles of Pine Hills between 1992 and 2020, burning about 267,746 acres in total. 27 started naturally. 19 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 | 87 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 58 |
| Natural | 27 |
| Debris and open burning | 26 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 25 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 19 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 8 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 4 |
| Smoking | 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 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Diego Unit | ENGINEER |
| 7 September 2000 | Natural | under an acre | San Diego Unit | LANE |
| 7 September 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Diego Unit | HIESE |
| 5 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Desert District | OFILA |
| 4 September 2004 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | California Desert District | HEMBORG |
| 4 September 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | San Diego Unit | DATSUN |
| 30 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Diego Unit | GRANDVIEW |
| 30 September 2010 | Natural | under an acre | San Diego Unit | BLACK OAK |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 97 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 97 workings within 5 miles of Pine Hills: 32 producers, 26 past producers, 20 occurrences, 19 prospects. 32 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Nickel, Copper, Gold, Copper. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foster Quarry | Stone | Producer | ||
| Foster Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Friday Copper Co Claim | Cobalt, Copper, Nickel | Prospect | ||
| Friday Deposit | Nickel, Iron, Cobalt, Copper | Prospect | ||
| Friday Mine | Copper, Nickel, Cobalt, Palladium, Platinum, Iridium | Occurrence | 1885 | |
| Kentwood Scheelite Claim | Tungsten | Occurrence | ||
| Owens | Gold, Copper, Silver | Past Producer | Vein | |
| Owens Mine | Gold, Silver, Copper | Past Producer | ||
| Owens Old Owensmine | Gold, Copper, Silver | Producer | ||
| Unnamed Prospect | Iron | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
12 since 2003Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Pine Hills in 12 storm reports between 2003 and 2025: 10 heavy rain, 1 wildfire, 1 thunderstorm wind. The reports record 14 deaths and 90 injuries. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2003 | Wildfire | Pine Hills | 14 killed, 90 hurt, $1,040,000,000 | no account filed |
| November 2025 | Heavy Rain | Pine Hills | - | Mesonet station PHIC1 4.8 SW Julian reported 0.69 inches of rain in the past hour. |
| September 2025 | Heavy Rain | Pine Hills | - | A public source reported 0.80 inches of rainfall. |
| October 2022 | Heavy Rain | Pine Hills | - | Lake Cuyamaca received 1.59 inches of rain in hour, occurring between 1 and 2 PM local time. The storm total rainfall as of 7 AM local time on the 16th was 2.78 inches. |
| August 2022 | Heavy Rain | Pine Hills | - | Lake Cuyamaca spotter received 0.75 inches of rain in 45 minutes. |
| August 2022 | Heavy Rain | Pine Hills | - | Mesonet station FW0019 Lake Cuyamaca measured 0.49 inch of rain in 45 minutes. |
| March 2021 | Heavy Rain | Pine Hills | - | Areas of the San Diego county mountains received heavy rainfall out of this storm system, with some areas over 2 inches in total. Pine Hills reported 2.82 inches of rain. |
| March 2021 | Heavy Rain | Pine Hills | - | The valleys and mountains of San Diego County saw appreciable rainfall with some places reaching near 1.5 inches of rain in total. |
| August 2021 | Heavy Rain | Pine Hills | - | Lake Cuyamaca measures 0.82 inches of rain. |
| October 2021 | Heavy Rain | Pine Hills | - | Moderate to heavy rain fell across the region with areas of 0.50 to 0.80 inches total. |
| November 2020 | Heavy Rain | Pine Hills | - | Areas of heavy rainfall occurred across the mountains and valleys of San Diego County. Notable totals occurred at Lake Cuyamaca with 3.98 inches of rain and Pine Valley with 3.31 inches of rain. |
| January 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pine Hills | - | Two mesonet stations at Lake Cuyamaca reported thunderstorm wind gusts between 64 and 70 mph. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Branson (historical) | 2.2 miles | 34 | |
| Julian | 2.6 miles | 34 | |
| Kentwood-In-The-Pines | 3.3 miles | 34 | |
| Wynola | 3.5 miles | 34 | |
| Whispering Pines | 3.5 miles | 34 | |
| Harrison Park | 3.6 miles | 34 | |
| Banner | 4.7 miles | 34 | |
| Santa Ysabel | 4.8 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 Pine Hills | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q7195207 | 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 1661223. 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.













