Photograph by Louis Sanchez Collection, Oakland, California, Public domain. Via
Wikimedia Commons.
Frank Norris Cabin
A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. 10 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1917.
From the record
“The Frank Norris Cabin, also known as Redwood Retreat, was a retreat of the author Frank Norris in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Gilroy, California. A log cabin, it was only briefly owned by Norris before his untimely death in October 1902.”
Wikipedia article Frank Norris Cabin, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 117 National Register listings published here for Santa Clara County · listed in 1966 · category: Building · a National Historic Landmark.
National Register reference number.66000235- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Then and now
1917 to 1996
The ground this property stands on, surveyed
79 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are
United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
19171996
Fires near this property
213 since 1992
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 213 fires within 5 miles of Frank Norris Cabin
between 1992 and 2020, burning about 4,184 acres in total. None started naturally. 9 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/undetermined
87
Equipment and vehicle use
69
Debris and open burning
20
Arson/incendiarism
9
Power generation/transmission/distribution
9
Recreation and ceremony
7
Misuse of fire by a minor
6
Smoking
2
Other causes
2
Fireworks
1
Firearms and explosives use
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
8 workings within 5 miles of Frank Norris Cabin: 5 occurrences, 3 past producers.
None of them still produces. What was taken out: Chromium, Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Gilroy, the town this property stands in, in 14 storm reports between 2007 and 2024: 7 hail, 5 flood, 1 tornado, 1 thunderstorm wind.
The reports record 1 death. 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.
Heavy rain caused the flood control channel of the Gilroy creek near Forest Street to rise to near capacity. Just before noon firefighters and police arrived at the scene where they pulled a 43-year-old male from the water. His death was determined to be from drowning.
A small tornado spun up near Gavilan College in Santa Clara County - about 2 miles southwest of Gilroy. The tornado touched down briefly and damaged an awning on a temporary trailer and tore apart a large tree - including several two-foot wide limbs ripped off at the trunk.
At 3:40 PM an employee of the Santa Clara County OES observed a severe thunderstorm that produced large hail at his home. He measured hail from dime to quarter size that produced minor damage to plants around his home.
Spotters from the town of Gilroy in Santa Clara County reported that pea sized hail fell during a severe thunderstorm in the area. Hail accumulated up to depths of 2 inches across the area. Minor damage to vegetable plants was observed.
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.
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
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.
Block
