Ruth, California
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1918 and the latest in 1997. It stands in the Mad River census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95552. It stands on Johnson Creek. The Survey maps it on the Forest Glen quadrangle. 254 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,933 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1918 to 1997The same ground, surveyed 79 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1918 against another survey:
Population over time
2 figuresRuth grew from 195 to 254 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 | 195 | |
| 2020 | 254 | +59 (+30%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 17 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.
- 1918 USGS Anada quadrangle1:62500
- 1931 USGS Hoaglin quadrangle1:96000
- 1935 USGS Hoaglin quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1954 USGS Pickett Peak quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Redding quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1979 USGS Forest Glen quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1979 USGS Garberville quadrangle1:100000
- 1997 USGS Forest Glen quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
112 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 112 fires within 5 miles of Ruth between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,596 acres in total. 45 started naturally. 4 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 |
|---|---|
| Natural | 45 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 14 |
| Debris and open burning | 9 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 6 |
| Smoking | 6 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 5 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 4 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 3 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 September 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.5 acres | Six Rivers National Forest | RODEO |
| 27 September 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | Six Rivers National Forest | SCOUT |
| 23 September 2011 | Debris and open burning | 1,460 acres | Six Rivers National Forest | RUTH |
| 19 September 2008 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Six Rivers National Forest | HOBART |
| 19 September 2008 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Six Rivers National Forest | HOBART 2 |
| 18 September 1998 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Six Rivers National Forest | BLAIR |
| 14 September 2004 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Six Rivers National Forest | RUTH 2 |
| 12 September 2017 | Natural | under an acre | Six Rivers National Forest | HETTENSHAW |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 17 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 17 workings within 5 miles of Ruth: 9 occurrences, 4 past producers, 2 prospects, 2 unknowns. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Manganese, Gold, Calcium, Manganese, Silica, Silica, Manganese. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Double A.Mine | Silica, Manganese | Past Producer | 1942, 1944 | |
| Linda Marie | Gold, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| Rebel | Gold, Copper | Unknown | ||
| Rebel Copper | Copper, Gold, Silver | Occurrence | Vein | |
| White Oak Prospect | Calcium, Manganese, Silica | Past Producer | 1942 | |
| Eagle P M C | Gold | Prospect | ||
| Apple Flat | Manganese | Occurrence | ||
| Apple Flat Prospect | Manganese | Occurrence | ||
| Apple Flat Prospect | Manganese | Prospect | 1942 | |
| Black Hawk | Manganese | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
6 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ruth in 6 storm reports between 1997 and 2021: 3 hail, 2 heavy rain, 1 flood. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2021 | Flood | Ruth | - | Minor flooding on county road due to 4 inches of rain over a 24 hour time period. |
| January 2019 | Heavy Rain | Ruth | - | Heavy rainfall accumulation of 4.5 inches. Thunder occasionally heard during the rain event. |
| January 2019 | Heavy Rain | Ruth | - | Twenty-four hour rainfall total of 3 inches. |
| August 1999 | Hail | Ruth | - | Hail reported by US Forest Service ranger. |
| August 2017 | Hail | Ruth | - | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Hail | Ruth | - | no account filed |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ueland Place | 5.0 miles | 18 | |
| Murphy Place | 5.5 miles | 15 | |
| Yellowjacket Place | 6.9 miles | 17 | |
| Forest Glen | 7.2 miles | 17 | |
| Crabtree Place | 8.2 miles | 17 | |
| Shannon Place | 8.2 miles | 17 | |
| Bramlet Place | 8.4 miles | 15 | |
| Russ Place | 8.8 miles | 17 |
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 Ruth | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q6646108 | 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 1656270. 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.







