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Valley Acres, California

24 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1910 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the West Kern census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93268. It stands on Broad Creek. The Survey maps it on the Taft quadrangle. 504 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 420 feet above sea level.

Valley Acres within Kern County

Then and now

1910 to 1981

The same ground, surveyed 71 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Valley Acres, surveyed 1981
Topographic sheet of Valley Acres, surveyed 1910

Population over time

2 figures

Valley Acres fell from 527 to 504 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.

YearPeople Change
2010527
2020504-23 (-4%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

11 surveys from 24 printed sheets

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.

Fires near this place

179 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 179 fires within 5 miles of Valley Acres between 1993 and 2020, burning about 11,415 acres in total. 6 started naturally. 13 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined87
Power generation/transmission/distribution30
Equipment and vehicle use23
Misuse of fire by a minor15
Arson/incendiarism13
Natural6
Smoking3
Debris and open burning2

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

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
7 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreKern County Fire DepartmentELK HILLS
6 September 2017Power generation/transmission/distribution10 acresCentral California DistrictHILL
4 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresCentral California DistrictUNNAMED FIRE 0314
4 September 1999Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreCentral California DistrictUNNAMED FIRE 0114
30 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreKern County Fire Departmentnot named
3 September 2000Missing data/not specified/undetermined5.0 acresCentral California DistrictUNNAMED FIRE 0323
29 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreKern County Fire Departmentnot named
29 September 1999Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreCentral California DistrictUNNAMED FIRE 0619

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Kern County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Valley Acres: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Morton PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Kern County

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 PlaceDistance Sheets
Dustin Acres1.3 miles24
Wallace Center4.0 miles24
Ford City4.4 miles24
Taft5.1 miles24
South Taft5.6 miles24
Taft Heights6.0 miles24
Warren (historical)6.9 miles23
Midoil7.0 miles23

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 Valley AcresAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q615854The 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 1661615. 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.