Bale Mill

Built in 1846. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. 13 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1927.

From the record

One of 88 National Register listings published here for Napa County · listed in 1972 · category: Building · built in 1846.

Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 2 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Address. 3 mi. NW of St. Helena off CA 128, St. Helena, 94574
When was it listed? June 1972
Category. building
Census division. St. Helena
When was it built? 1846
National Register reference number. 72000240 - 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

1927 to 1997

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 70 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Bale Mill, surveyed 1997

Topographic sheet covering Bale Mill, surveyed 1927

Fires near this property

254 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 254 fires within 5 miles of Bale Mill between 1992 and 2020, burning about 68,357 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 16 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	92
Equipment and vehicle use	72
Debris and open burning	45
Arson/incendiarism	16
Power generation/transmission/distribution	12
Smoking	11
Natural	3
Recreation and ceremony	3

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 2014	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Sonoma-Lake Napa Unit	SPRING
8 September 2004	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Sonoma-Lake Napa Unit	WEST
7 September 1992	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	Sonoma-Lake Napa Unit	CLOVER
6 September 2007	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Sonoma-Lake Napa Unit	SPRING WHITE 2
5 September 2003	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	4.0 acres	Sonoma-Lake Napa Unit	SMOKEY OAK
4 September 1999	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Sonoma-Lake Napa Unit	HOFACKET
28 September 2007	Smoking	under an acre	Sonoma-Lake Napa Unit	LAS POSADAS RD ANGWIN 22
27 September 2020	Equipment and vehicle use	67,484 acres	Sonoma-Lake Napa Unit	GLASS

Every fire recorded in Napa County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 26 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 26 workings within 5 miles of Bale Mill: 13 occurrences, 6 prospects, 3 producers, 2 past producers. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Mercury, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Clay. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Calistoga	Geothermal	Unknown
Glass Mountain Deposit	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Prospect
Sullinger Claim	Chromium	Occurrence	Chromite
Unnamed Location	Perlite	Occurrence
Stirling	Iron	Occurrence	Hematite
Unnamed Location	Iron	Unknown
Clark and March Kaolin Mine	Clay	Prospect	Sedimentary
Clark and Marsh Kaolin	Clay	Occurrence
Clark and Marsh Kaolin Mine	Clay	Prospect	Sedimentary
Clark and Marsh Kaolin Mine	Clay	Prospect

Every working recorded in Napa County

Maps showing this location

13 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.

1927 USGS Calistoga quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1943 USGS Calistoga quadrangle1:62500
1945 USGS Calistoga quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1947 USGS Santa Rosa quadrangle1:250000
1949 USGS Santa Rosa quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1958 USGS Calistoga quadrangle1:24000 - 5 printings
1958 USGS Santa Rosa quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1959 USGS Calistoga quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1962 USGS Santa Rosa quadrangle1:250000
1964 USGS Santa Rosa quadrangle1:250000
1972 USGS Healdsburg quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1993 USGS Calistoga quadrangle1:24000
1997 USGS Calistoga quadrangle1:24000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

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.

Property	Distance	Listed
Larkmead Winery	1.4 miles	1982
Elmshaven	1.7 miles	1993
Schramsberg Vineyard	1.8 miles	1998
Chateau Chevalier	1.8 miles	1987
J.C. Weinberger Winery	1.9 miles	2015
Charles Krug Winery	2.2 miles	1974

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 72000240 in Record Group 79.
Napa County	All 88 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.