Shelter Cove, California
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1920 and the latest in 1997. It stands in the Garberville census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95589. It lies near Dead Mans Gulch. The Survey maps it on the Shelter Cove quadrangle. 803 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 138 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1920 to 1997The same ground, surveyed 77 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1920 against another survey:
Population over time
2 figuresShelter Cove grew from 693 to 803 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 | 693 | |
| 2020 | 803 | +110 (+16%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 16 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.
- 1920 USGS Pt. Delagda quadrangle1:62500
- 1949 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1949 USGS Point Delgada quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1951 USGS Point Delgada quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1969 USGS Shelter Cove quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1989 USGS Cape Mendocino quadrangle1:100000
- 1997 USGS Shelter Cove quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
63 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 63 fires within 5 miles of Shelter Cove between 1992 and 2020, burning about 62 acres in total. 7 started naturally. 1 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 21 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 |
| Natural | 7 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 5 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 4 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Other causes | 1 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2004 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Northern California District | HUU CHEMIS |
| 8 September 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | GALE |
| 6 September 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.5 acres | Humboldt-Del Norte Unit | USAL |
| 5 September 2003 | Natural | 3.0 acres | Northern California District | HUU CHAM 1 |
| 3 September 2003 | Natural | under an acre | Northern California District | HUU SHELT |
| 3 September 2003 | Natural | under an acre | Northern California District | HUU CHAM 2 |
| 3 September 2003 | Natural | under an acre | Northern California District | HUU 12 |
| 27 September 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Humboldt-Del Norte Unit | WARDEN |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
3 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Shelter Cove: 2 producers, 1 unknown. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Manganese, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chemise Mountain Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Queens Peak | Manganese | Unknown | 1961 | |
| Queens Peak Mng. Co. | Manganese | Producer | 1958 |
Storms near this place
9 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Shelter Cove in 9 storm reports between 1995 and 2026: 3 heavy rain, 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 rip current. The reports record 3 deaths. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2000 | Rip Current | Shelter Cove | 3 killed | no account filed |
| December 2016 | Heavy Rain | Shelter Cove | $1,500,000 | A landslide caused by heavy rain resulted in damage of Shelter Cove Road, the primary route from Shelter Cove at the coast to interior areas of Humboldt County. |
| December 2016 | Heavy Rain | Shelter Cove | $200,000 | A culvert failure due to heavy rain along Telegraph Creek Road has the potential to release 10,000 cubic yards of sediment into Telegraph Creek. |
| January 2026 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelter Cove | - | Three trees down on Hillside Drive in Shelter Cove. Winds were estimated at between 60 and 70 mph. |
| January 2026 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelter Cove | - | Tree down on King Peak Road blocking a quarter of the roadway. |
| January 2026 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelter Cove | - | Many branches and small trees down along Shelter Cove Road between Shelter Cove and Briceland. |
| February 2019 | Heavy Rain | Shelter Cove | - | Rock slide at the intersection of Shelter Cove Road and Paradise Ridge Road. |
| March 1996 | Hail | Shelter Cove | - | no account filed |
| March 1995 | Hail | Shelter Cove | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thorn Junction | 6.2 miles | 17 | |
| Whitethorn | 6.9 miles | 17 | |
| Ettersburg | 8.5 miles | 16 | |
| Briceland | 10.6 miles | 17 | |
| Hunter Place | 10.7 miles | 13 | |
| Scott Place | 12.3 miles | 13 | |
| Beall Place | 12.9 miles | 14 | |
| Westlund Place | 14.3 miles | 13 |
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 Shelter Cove | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3458363 | 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 1659640. 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.








