San Ardo, California
25 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1912 and the latest in 1987. It stands in the San Ardo census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93450. It stands on Pancho Rico Creek. The Survey maps it on the San Ardo quadrangle. 392 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 449 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1912 to 1987The same ground, surveyed 75 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1912 against another survey:
Population over time
2 figuresSan Ardo fell from 517 to 392 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 | 517 | |
| 2020 | 392 | -125 (-24%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
13 surveys from 25 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.
- 1912 USGS San Ardo quadrangle1:31680
- 1915 USGS Priest Valley quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1941 USGS San Ardo quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1943 USGS San Ardo quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1948 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS San Ardo quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1965 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS San Ardo quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1974 USGS Monterey quadrangle1:250000
- 1987 USGS Coalinga quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
113 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 113 fires within 5 miles of San Ardo between 1992 and 2020, burning about 3,205 acres in total. 3 started naturally. None was 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 | 63 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 32 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 6 |
| Debris and open burning | 6 |
| Natural | 3 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | San Benito-Monterey Unit | PARIS VALLEY |
| 7 September 2014 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | San Benito-Monterey Unit | PARIS |
| 4 September 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | San Benito-Monterey Unit | P G & E #21 |
| 4 September 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 10 acres | San Benito-Monterey Unit | PG&E #22 |
| 23 September 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | San Benito-Monterey Unit | PG&E # 33 |
| 13 September 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 630 acres | San Benito-Monterey Unit | PG&E #21 |
| 8 August 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | San Benito-Monterey Unit | CABEU002933 |
| 7 August 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | San Benito-Monterey Unit | TEXACO |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of San Ardo: 1 producer, 1 past producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brennan Deposit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Brinan Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
1 since 2020Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names San Ardo in 1 storm report in 2020: 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2020 | Lightning | San Ardo | - | Report of lightning striking a tree near San Ardo sparking a small fire. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Docas (historical) | 4.9 miles | 25 | |
| Wunpost | 6.6 miles | 24 | |
| San Lucas | 9.7 miles | 24 | |
| Lockwood | 10.8 miles | 25 | |
| Pleyto | 12.0 miles | 24 | |
| Pleyto (historical) | 12.0 miles | 24 | |
| Bradley | 12.2 miles | 27 | |
| Martinus Corner | 12.6 miles | 25 |
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 San Ardo | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2979612 | 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 248795. 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.












