Shafter, California
20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1930 and the latest in 1993. It stands in the Shafter census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93263. The Survey maps it on the Wasco quadrangle. 19,953 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 348 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1930 to 1993The same ground, surveyed 63 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


On record in Shafter
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 3 records
Green Hotellisted 1989
Santa Fe Passenger and Freight Depotlisted 1982
Shafter Research Stationlisted 1997
Population over time
2 figuresShafter grew from 16,988 to 19,953 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 | 16,988 | |
| 2020 | 19,953 | +2,965 (+17%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 20 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.
- 1930 USGS Wasco quadrangle1:31680, 3 printings
- 1943 USGS Wasco quadrangle1:62500
- 1948 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1953 USGS Wasco quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1966 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000
- 1993 USGS Delano quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
56 since 2005Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 56 fires within 5 miles of Shafter between 2005 and 2020, burning about 23 acres in total. None started naturally. 7 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 | 40 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 7 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 5 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 September 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 3 September 2007 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 21 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 2 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 16 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 10 September 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 6 August 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 2 August 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
1 since 2016Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Shafter in 1 storm report in 2016: 1 heavy rain. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2016 | Heavy Rain | Shafter | - | Reports of nuisance flooding and street ponding were submitted via Facebook of flooding in Shafter California in Kern County at approximately 2020 PST. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Shafter | 1.0 miles | 20 | |
| Thomas Lane | 1.1 miles | 27 | |
| Myricks Corner | 1.5 miles | 20 | |
| Smith Corner | 1.6 miles | 27 | |
| Mexican Colony | 2.2 miles | 27 | |
| Cherokee Strip | 2.4 miles | 27 | |
| Minter Village | 4.7 miles | 20 | |
| Palmo | 5.1 miles | 20 |
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 Shafter | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q985258 | 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 1661428. 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.
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.









