Thornton, California
24 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1894 and the latest in 1993. It stands in the Thornton census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95686. It stands on Dry Creek. The Survey maps it on the Thornton quadrangle. 1,004 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 13 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1894 to 1993The same ground, surveyed 99 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Population over time
2 figuresThornton fell from 1,131 to 1,004 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 | 1,131 | |
| 2020 | 1,004 | -127 (-11%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 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.
- 1894 USGS Lodi quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1910 USGS New Hope quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
- 1939 USGS Lodi quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1942 USGS Lodi quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1948 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000
- 1952 USGS New Hope quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1956 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1978 USGS Thornton quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1993 USGS Lodi quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
18 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 18 fires within 5 miles of Thornton between 1997 and 2020, burning about 81 acres in total. None 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 6 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 September 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 30 acres | Central California District | FRANKLIN |
| 24 August 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Central California District | 22 |
| 13 August 1997 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1.0 acres | Central California District | LEVEE |
| 18 July 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 acres | Central California District | PRESERVEI |
| 17 July 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Central California District | FRANKLIN |
| 29 June 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Amador-El Dorado Unit | not named |
| 22 June 2020 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Central California District | CRP VC |
| 13 June 2020 | Fireworks | under an acre | Cordelia Fire Protection District | CRP PLATFORM |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Hope (historical) | 0.0 miles | 24 | |
| Taison (historical) | 1.7 miles | 24 | |
| Mokelumne City | 2.0 miles | 27 | |
| New Hope Landing | 3.5 miles | 24 | |
| Eagle Tree (historical) | 5.0 miles | 22 | |
| Woodbridge | 8.2 miles | 23 | |
| Collierville | 8.3 miles | 23 | |
| Acampo | 8.5 miles | 23 |
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 Thornton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q6644877 | 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 236291. 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.










