Photograph by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, photographer not specified or not known, Public domain. Via
Wikimedia Commons.
Boca Dam
Built in 1937. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. 11 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1891.
From the record
“Boca Dam is an earthfill dam and a part of the Truckee Storage Project that encompasses Nevada County, California and Washoe County, Nevada in the United States. Open year-round, it is located at the southern end of Boca Reservoir, 1 mi (2 km) north of Interstate 80, 0.3 mi (480 m) above the confluence of the Little Truckee River and the Truckee River, and 6 mi (9.7 km) northeast of Truckee, California.”
Wikipedia article Boca Dam, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 22 National Register listings published here for Nevada County · listed in 1981 · category: Structure · built in 1937.
National Register reference number.81000712- 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
1891 to 2000
The ground this property stands on, surveyed
109 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are
United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
18912000
Fires near this property
280 since 1992
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 280 fires within 5 miles of Boca Dam
between 1992 and 2020, burning about 2,820 acres in total. 55 started naturally. 11 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
83
Recreation and ceremony
73
Natural
55
Equipment and vehicle use
23
Debris and open burning
19
Arson/incendiarism
11
Smoking
8
Misuse of fire by a minor
3
Power generation/transmission/distribution
3
Fireworks
1
Railroad operations and maintenance
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
9 September 2019
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
3.0 acres
Tahoe National Forest
RESERVOIR
9 September 2013
Recreation and ceremony
1.0 acres
Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit
AIRPORT
8 September 2017
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
under an acre
California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
7 workings within 5 miles of Boca Dam: 3 producers, 2 occurrences, 1 past producer, 1 unknown.
3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Gold, Uranium, Pumice. 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
Truckee, the town this property stands in, in 20 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 9 hail, 9 heavy rain, 1 flood, 1 lightning.
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.
A 71-yr-old man was struck and killed by lightning during an early morning thunderstorm at Donner Memorial State Park just west of Truckee, CA. He had been camping with family in the Park and was outside in an area of tall trees.
A COOP observer station (BOCC1 - Boca Reservoir) located 1.0 mi SSW of Boca Reservoir, CA, a CoCORAHS station (CA-NV-51 Truckee) located 2.0 mi N of Truckee, CA, and a CO-OP Observer station (FARC1 Floriston) located 2.0 mi NNW of Floriston, CA, reported 24 hour rainfall/liquid totals of 3.22 inches, 2.98 inches, and 2.52 inches respectively.
A CoCORAHS station (CA-NV-51 Truckee) located 2.0 mi N of Truckee, CA, and a CO-OP Observer station (BOCC1) located 1.0 mi SSW of Boca Reservoir, CA, reported 24 hour rainfall/liquid totals of 1.0 inches and 0.68 inches respectively.
A Local Official located at 6.0 mi W of Truckee, CA, a CoCORAHS station (CA-NV-51 Truckee) located 2.0 mi N of Truckee, CA, and a CO-OP Observer located 3.0 mi E of Truckee, CA, at the Truckee-Tahoe Airport (KTVL) reported 24 hour rainfall/liquid totals of 2.07 inches, 1.14 inches, and 0.96 inches respectively.
COCORAHS Station (CA-NV-51) located 2.0 mi N Truckee, CA, and CO-OP observer located 1.0 mi SSW of Boca Reservoir, CA, reported 24 hour heavy rainfall totals of 5.57 and 4.62 inches respectively during the period from 12/31/22 07:00 LST through 1/1/23 07:00 LST.
Mesonet TADC1 2 miles northeast of Donner Peak (elevation 7399 feet) reported 1.04 inches of rainfall in a 26-hour period from 3 October 1133PST to 4 October 1333PST.
Heavy rainfall over Nevada County caused river and creek levels to rise. Some 24-hour rainfall totals included:||5 miles WNW of Truckee, 2.57 inches of rain caused minor street flooding; |Donner Lake HADS site 5 miles west of Truckee (elev. 5924 ft), 1.87 inches; and |Independence Creek SNOTEL (elev. 6500 ft), 1.30 inches.
Nevada County Sheriff reported "large" hail on Interstate 80 between Truckee and Donner Summit. Traffic was temporarily stopped. No confirmed reports of hail size other than Doppler Radar estimates exceeding 1.00 inch.
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.
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