Sorensens, California

The same ground, surveyed 103 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1889 1992

Matched 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.

• 1889 USGS Markleeville quadrangle1:125000
• 1891 USGS Markleeville quadrangle1:125000
• 1893 USGS Markleeville quadrangle1:125000, 9 printings
• 1948 USGS Walker Lake quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1955 USGS Freel Peak quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
• 1956 USGS Freel Peak quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
• 1957 USGS Walker Lake quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
• 1962 USGS Walker Lake quadrangle1:250000
• 1964 USGS Walker Lake quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1985 USGS Smith Valley quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
• 1992 USGS Freel Peak quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 192 fires within 5 miles of Sorensens between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,038 acres in total. 150 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.

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Alpine Village
• Fredericksburg
• Mesa Vista
• Paynesville
• Woodfords

Every fire recorded in Alpine County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 5,404 specimens collected within 10 miles of Sorensens between 1863 and 1975: 4,923 Animalia, 241 Plantae, 228 Fungi, 9 Unrecorded, 3 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. A. Beetle, A. A. Heller, A. Bartel and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Image	Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
	Bryanthus breweri A.Gray	1863	William H. Brewer	Woods Peak, near Carson Pass
	Calamagrostis breweri Thurb.	1863	William H. Brewer	Near summit of Carson Pass
	Polygonum davisiae W.H.Brewer ex A.Gray	1863	William H. Brewer	Carson Pass. Near Camp 136
	Loxia curvirostra bendirei Ridgway, 1884	1863	Collector(s): James Graham Cooper	summit, Johnson's Pass, near Lake Tahoe
	Myadestes townsendi townsendi (Audubon, 1838)	1863	Collector(s): James Graham Cooper	Johnson's Pass, Sierra Nevada
	Picoides arcticus (Swainson, 1832)	1863	Collector(s): James Graham Cooper	summit Johnson's Pass
	Pinicola enucleator californica Price, 1897	1863	Collector(s): James Graham Cooper	summit, Johnson's Pass
	Poecile gambeli abbreviatus	1863	Collector(s): James Graham Cooper	summit, Johnson's Pass
	Rana sierrae Camp, 1917	1863	Collector(s): Tracy I. Storer, James Graham Cooper	summit Johnson's Pass, Sierra Nevada
	Regulus satrapa olivaceus S.F.Baird, 1864	1863	Collector(s): James Graham Cooper	summit Johnson's Pass
	Sambucus melanocarpa A.Gray	1863	William H. Brewer	Near summit of Carson Pass
	Selaginella watsonii Underw.	1863	William H. Brewer	Carson Pass

All 5,404 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 27 workings within 5 miles of Sorensens: 12 past producers, 9 occurrences, 3 producers, 3 unknowns. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Tungsten, Gold, Silver, Molybdenum, Copper. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Every working recorded in Alpine County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sorensens in 8 storm reports between 2018 and 2023: 7 heavy rain, 1 debris flow. 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.

Every storm recorded in Alpine County

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

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.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1656319. 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.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

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.