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Photograph of Bear Valley School
Photograph by Elizabeth Pidgeon National Park Service, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Bear Valley School

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. 12 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1919.

From the record

One of 14 National Register listings published here for San Benito County · listed in 2014 · category: Building.

Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 3 structuress, 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. E. side of CA 146, 1 mi. N. of jct. with CA 25, Paicines, 95043
  • When was it listed? June 2014
  • Category. building
  • Census division. San Benito-Bitterwater
  • National Register reference number. 14000267 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

45 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 45 fires within 5 miles of Bear Valley School between 1992 and 2019, burning about 1,757 acres in total. 3 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
Equipment and vehicle use21
Missing data/not specified/undetermined11
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Natural3
Recreation and ceremony2
Arson/incendiarism2
Debris and open burning2
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
25 September 2001Naturalunder an acrePinnacles National ParkNORTH WEST
25 September 2001Naturalunder an acreSan Benito-Monterey UnitHWY-25#3
16 September 2001Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSan Benito-Monterey UnitHWY 25
12 September 2003Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreSan Benito-Monterey UnitPGE 21
6 August 1997Missing data/not specified/undetermined24 acresSan Benito-Monterey UnitGLORIA
5 August 1994Equipment and vehicle use1,154 acresPinnacles National ParkPINNACLES
31 August 2015Power generation/transmission/distribution5.3 acresSan Benito-Monterey UnitAIRLINE
30 August 2007Natural486 acresSan Benito-Monterey UnitQUIEN

Every fire recorded in San Benito County

Mines and quarries near this property

8 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Bear Valley School: 4 past producers, 3 occurrences, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Mercury, Copper, Strontium, Gold, Silver. 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
Copper MountainCopper, Gold, Silver, MolybdenumPast ProducerChalcopyrite, Molybdenite
Pinnacles National MonumentUraniumOccurrence
Butte MineMercury, StrontiumProducer
Butte MineMercury, StrontiumPast Producer
Copper Mountain Mining Co.CopperPast Producer
ButtsMercuryPast Producer1900, 1915
CannonMercuryOccurrenceCinnabar
Cerro GordoMercuryOccurrenceCinnabar

Every working recorded in San Benito County

Storms near this property

1 since 2026

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Paicines, the town this property stands in, in 1 storm report in 2026: 1 flood. The reports record 1 death and 1 injury. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
February 2026FloodPaicines1 killed, 1 hurtA small sedan attempted to ford Tres Pinos Creek along Browns Valley Road near Paicines on the night of February 17, with first responders responding to the scene during the night. The next morning, the driver was found walking along Highway 25 asking about the location of the passenger. The passenger's body was eventually found a mile downstream of where the car had gotten stranded. The driver was later arrested on charges of gross vehicular manslaughter. At the time of the incident, the TESC1 river gauge on Tres Pinos Creek measured stages above 2 feet, compared to a typical stage of less than a foot.

Every storm recorded in San Benito County

Maps showing this location

12 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 14000267 in Record Group 79.
San Benito CountyAll 14 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • 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.