Sierraville, California
24 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1890 and the latest in 2000. It stands in the East Sierra census division. It lies in ZIP code area 96126. It stands on Cold Stream. The Survey maps it on the Sierraville quadrangle. 239 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,957 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1890 to 2000The same ground, surveyed 110 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


On record in Sierraville
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 2 records
Sierraville Schoollisted 2017- Webber Lake Hotellisted 2018
Population over time
2 figuresSierraville grew from 200 to 239 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 | 200 | |
| 2020 | 239 | +39 (+20%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 24 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.
- 1890 USGS Sierraville quadrangle1:125000
- 1892 USGS Sierraville quadrangle1:125000
- 1894 USGS Sierraville quadrangle1:125000, 9 printings
- 1955 USGS Sierraville quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1960 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000
- 1979 USGS Portola quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1981 USGS Sierraville quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 2000 USGS Sierraville quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
113 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 113 fires within 5 miles of Sierraville between 1992 and 2020, burning about 49,467 acres in total. 68 started naturally. 2 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 | 68 |
| Debris and open burning | 14 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 11 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 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 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.3 acres | Tahoe National Forest | DEERWATER |
| 6 September 1998 | Natural | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | HARDING |
| 29 September 1994 | Natural | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | GUN |
| 29 September 1994 | Natural | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | DEERWATER |
| 24 September 1998 | Natural | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | BLATCHLEY |
| 24 September 1994 | Natural | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | HARD |
| 20 September 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | COBURN |
| 16 September 1998 | Natural | under an acre | Tahoe National Forest | TREASURE |
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 Sierraville: 2 prospects, 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Copper. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antelope Neck | Copper | Occurrence | Unknown | |
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Prospect | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Prospect |
Storms near this place
16 since 2003Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sierraville in 16 storm reports between 2003 and 2024: 13 heavy rain, 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 flood, 1 hail. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2005 | Flood | Sierraville | $1,000,000 | Debris in streams caused water to back up and caused flooding in portions of eastern Sierra County. Several buildings experienced flooding, including the U.S. Forest Service office in Sierraville. California Highway 89 was closed across Sierra County from the Nevada County line to Calpine. |
| August 2024 | Heavy Rain | Sierraville | - | Mesonet station (RNYC1- Rice Canyon) located 5.0 mi SSE of Sierravilles, CA, and mesonet station (GW0434 Calpine) located 1.0 mi ESE of Calpine, CA reported 24 hr rainfall storm totals of 0.61 and 1.03 inches respectively. |
| March 2019 | Heavy Rain | Sierraville | - | CoCoRaHS Station CA-SI-2, 1 mile southwest of Sierraville reported 0.75 inches of rainfall over a 24 hour period from 27 March 0600PST to 28 March 0600PST. |
| January 2019 | Heavy Rain | Sierraville | - | CoCoRaHS station CA-SI-2 1 mile southwest of Sierraville reported 2.95 inches of rainfall in a 24 hour period from 16 January 0700PST to 17 January 0700PST. |
| May 2019 | Heavy Rain | Sierraville | - | CoCoRaHS Station CA-SI-2, 1 mile southwest of Sierraville reported 0.77 inches of rainfall over a 24 hour period from 15 May 0500PST to 16 May 0500PST. |
| July 2018 | Heavy Rain | Sierraville | - | Mesonet station D9436, 1 mile southwest of Sierraville (elevation 5100 feet) reported 1.13 inches of rainfall in a 1 hour and 45 minute period from 23 July 1314PST to 1459PST. |
| April 2018 | Heavy Rain | Sierraville | - | Mesonet station D9436, 1 mile southwest of Sierraville (elevation 5100 feet) reported 1.75 inches of rainfall in a 24 hour period from 6 April 0711PST to 7 April 0711PST. |
| May 2018 | Heavy Rain | Sierraville | - | Mesonet station D9436, 1 mile southwest of Sierraville (elevation 5100 feet) reported 1.52 inches of rainfall in a 24-hour period from 24 May 0920PST to 25 May 0920PST. |
| November 2018 | Heavy Rain | Sierraville | - | CoCoRaHS station CA-SI-2, 1 mile southwest of Sierraville, reported 1.04 inches of rainfall from 21 November 0800PST to 22 November 0700PST. |
| November 2017 | Heavy Rain | Sierraville | - | CoCoRaHS observer reported 4.59 inches of rain from 15 November 0700PST to 16 November 0700PST. |
| May 2009 | Hail | Sierraville | - | Nickel-size hail was reported 2 miles south of Sierraville. |
| August 2007 | Heavy Rain | Sierraville | - | A trained weather spotter 4 miles WNW of Sierraville reported extremely heavy rainfall with 0.20 inch of rainfall occurring in only 2 minutes. |
| February 2006 | Heavy Rain | Sierraville | - | A total of 4.88 inches of rain fell 4 miles WNW of Sierraville. |
| August 2004 | Heavy Rain | Sierraville | - | A total of 0.86 inches of rainfall (0.78 inches in one hour) was recorded at the RAWS sensor in Dog Valley. |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sierraville | - | The U.S. Forest Service in Sierraville reported thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 60-70 mph. No damage was reported. |
| May 2005 | Heavy Rain | Sierraville | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Randolph | 0.7 miles | 24 | |
| Campbell Hot Springs | 1.4 miles | 24 | |
| Sattley | 3.7 miles | 24 | |
| Calpine | 6.5 miles | 24 | |
| Clark Station Homesites | 8.5 miles | 27 | |
| Sierra Brooks | 8.8 miles | 24 | |
| Loyalton | 9.0 miles | 24 | |
| Haskell Creek Homesites | 10.3 miles | 28 |
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 Sierraville | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q6646078 | 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 233103. 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.








