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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.

Rancho Mirage within Riverside County

Then and now

1904 to 1996

The 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.

Topographic sheet of Rancho Mirage, surveyed 1996
Topographic sheet of Rancho Mirage, surveyed 1904

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

Population over time

3 figures

Rancho 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.

YearPeople Change
19701,298
201017,218
202016,999-219 (-1%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

13 surveys from 31 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

555 since 1992

Regional 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/undetermined281
Equipment and vehicle use94
Arson/incendiarism55
Smoking45
Misuse of fire by a minor34
Natural15
Debris and open burning14
Recreation and ceremony12
Power generation/transmission/distribution4
Railroad operations and maintenance1

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
7 September 2017Naturalunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire ProtectionMONTEREY AV / SAGEWOOD DR
7 September 2001Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCoachella Valley National Wildlife RefugeLOCAL
7 September 2000Naturalunder an acreCalifornia Desert DistrictLOCAL FIRE
6 September 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresRiverside UnitONE QUAIL PLACE APT PDES
6 September 1993Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreRiverside UnitLOCAL
5 September 2004Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Desert DistrictLOCAL
5 September 2004Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreCoachella Valley National Wildlife RefugeVEH FIRE
4 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreRiverside UnitSAN PASQUAL AV PDES

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Riverside County

Mines and quarries near this place

8 within 5 miles

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Cameron Marble Co.Limestone, GeneralOccurrence
Serpentine HillAsbestosOccurrence
CottonwoodTungstenOccurrenceScheelite
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Magnesium Canyon Tungsten MineTungstenOccurrenceScheelite
Magnesium Canyon Tungsten MineTungstenProspect

Every working recorded in Riverside County

Storms near this place

4 since 1999

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2024Flash FloodRancho Mirage$20,000Calle 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 1999FloodRancho Mirage$20,000Heavy 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 2001LightningRancho Mirage$10,000no account filed
August 2013Flash FloodRancho 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.

Every storm recorded in Riverside 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
Palm Desert2.4 miles29
Cahuilla Hills3.5 miles31
Cathedral City3.9 miles33
Suntown4.0 miles33
Caliente Sands4.4 miles33
Royal Palms4.6 miles33
Edom4.8 miles33
Palm Desert Country5.2 miles29

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 MirageAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q506446The 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.