Rancho Mirage, California
31 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1904 and the latest in 1996. It stands in the Cathedral City-Palm Desert census division. It lies in ZIP code area 92270. It lies near Magnesia Spring Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Rancho Mirage quadrangle. 16,999 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 272 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1904 to 1996The same ground, surveyed 92 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1904 against another survey:
On record in Rancho Mirage
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 1 record
Kenaston Houselisted 2016
Population over time
3 figuresRancho Mirage grew from 1,298 to 16,999 between 1970 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 1,298 | |
| 2010 | 17,218 | |
| 2020 | 16,999 | -219 (-1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
13 surveys from 31 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.
- 1904 USGS Indio quadrangle1:125000, 7 printings
- 1941 USGS Toro Peak quadrangle1:62500
- 1944 USGS Toro peak quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1949 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Rancho Mirage quadrangle1:24000, 5 printings
- 1959 USGS Palm Desert quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1959 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1965 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Palm Springs quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
- 1996 USGS Rancho Mirage quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
555 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 555 fires within 5 miles of Rancho Mirage between 1992 and 2020, burning about 5,901 acres in total. 15 started naturally. 55 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 | 281 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 94 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 55 |
| Smoking | 45 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 34 |
| Natural | 15 |
| Debris and open burning | 14 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 12 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 4 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2017 | Natural | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | MONTEREY AV / SAGEWOOD DR |
| 7 September 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Coachella Valley National Wildlife Refuge | LOCAL |
| 7 September 2000 | Natural | under an acre | California Desert District | LOCAL FIRE |
| 6 September 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Riverside Unit | ONE QUAIL PLACE APT PDES |
| 6 September 1993 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Riverside Unit | LOCAL |
| 5 September 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Desert District | LOCAL |
| 5 September 2004 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Coachella Valley National Wildlife Refuge | VEH FIRE |
| 4 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Riverside Unit | SAN PASQUAL AV PDES |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
8 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Rancho Mirage: 4 occurrences, 3 past producers, 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Tungsten, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Asbestos, Limestone, General. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cameron Marble Co. | Limestone, General | Occurrence | ||
| Serpentine Hill | Asbestos | Occurrence | ||
| Cottonwood | Tungsten | Occurrence | Scheelite | |
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Magnesium Canyon Tungsten Mine | Tungsten | Occurrence | Scheelite | |
| Magnesium Canyon Tungsten Mine | Tungsten | Prospect |
Storms near this place
4 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rancho Mirage in 4 storm reports between 1999 and 2024: 2 flash flood, 1 flood, 1 lightning. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2024 | Flash Flood | Rancho Mirage | $20,000 | Calle de Los Campesinos road was partially washed out. 1 inch of rain and large hail occurred in about 60 minutes. This location is just west of State Route 74 in Palm Desert. |
| July 1999 | Flood | Rancho Mirage | $20,000 | Heavy rains from thunderstorms flooded four apartments in Cathedral City with 3 inches of water, and streets and sidewalks in Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage with several inches to two feet of water. Lightning also caused power outages to over 10,000 customers throughout the Coachella Valley. |
| July 2001 | Lightning | Rancho Mirage | $10,000 | no account filed |
| August 2013 | Flash Flood | Rancho Mirage | - | A spotter reported 1.24 inches of rain fell in 35 minutes near the intersection of Highway 111 and Indian Trail Road in Rancho Mirage, resulting in 1 foot of water in the roadway at the gutters. The Century Theatre at The River in Rancho Mirage also evacuated movie-goers due to flooding. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palm Desert | 2.4 miles | 29 | |
| Cahuilla Hills | 3.5 miles | 31 | |
| Cathedral City | 3.9 miles | 33 | |
| Suntown | 4.0 miles | 33 | |
| Caliente Sands | 4.4 miles | 33 | |
| Royal Palms | 4.6 miles | 33 | |
| Edom | 4.8 miles | 33 | |
| Palm Desert Country | 5.2 miles | 29 |
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 Rancho Mirage | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q506446 | 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 1661281. 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.












