Tulelake, California
23 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1988. It stands in the Tulelake census division. It lies in ZIP code area 96134. The Survey maps it on the Tulelake quadrangle. 902 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,035 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1886 to 1988The same ground, surveyed 102 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


On record in Tulelake
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 5 records
Captain Jack's Strongholdlisted 1973
Schonchin Butte Fire Lookoutlisted 2017- Camp Tulelakelisted 2018
- Hospital Rock Army Camp Sitelisted 1973
- Thomas-Wright Battle Sitelisted 1978
Population over time
2 figuresTulelake fell from 1,010 to 902 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 | 1,010 | |
| 2020 | 902 | -108 (-11%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 23 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.
- 1886 USGS Modoc Lava Bed quadrangle1:250000
- 1892 USGS Modoc Lava Bed quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
- 1892 USGS Modoc Lava-Bed quadrangle1:250000
- 1951 USGS Tulelake quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1954 USGS Alturas quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Alturas quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Alturas quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Alturas quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Tulelake quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1988 USGS Tulelake quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
41 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 41 fires within 5 miles of Tulelake between 1992 and 2020, burning about 264 acres in total. 1 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.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 25 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 6 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Smoking | 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 2005 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge | JEEP |
| 6 September 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge | MDF ASST#1 |
| 5 September 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | 40 acres | Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge | FIELD |
| 22 September 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4.0 acres | Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge | ELVIS |
| 16 September 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge | POWERLINE |
| 16 September 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Modoc National Forest | HAWK |
| 29 August 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge | MDF-742 |
| 6 July 2007 | Natural | under an acre | Modoc National Forest | TULE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
4 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Tulelake: 3 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basalt Quarry | Stone | Past Producer | ||
| Basalt Quarry | Stone | Past Producer | ||
| Unnamed Pit | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Unnamed Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
2 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Tulelake in 2 storm reports between 1997 and 2002: 1 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hatfield | 3.6 miles | 24 | |
| Ainsworth Corner | 5.3 miles | 24 | |
| Chalk Bank Landing | 9.3 miles | 24 | |
| Fleener Place | 9.6 miles | 24 | |
| Canby Cross | 10.1 miles | 24 | |
| Laird Landing | 14.3 miles | 26 | |
| Dorris | 23.4 miles | 24 | |
| Somerset | 28.1 miles | 24 |
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 Tulelake | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2453325 | 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 1660040. 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.









