Michigan Bluff-Last Chance Trail

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. 13 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1891.

From the record

One of 35 National Register listings published here for Placer County · listed in 1992 · category: Structure.

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

The listing

Listed as. Michigan Bluff--Last Chance Trail - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. From Michigan Bluff NE to Last Chance, Michigan Bluff, 95631
When was it listed? June 1992
Category. structure
Census division. Foresthill-Back Country
National Register reference number. 92000854 - 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.

Fires near this property

101 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 101 fires within 5 miles of Michigan Bluff-Last Chance Trail between 1992 and 2020, burning about 38,072 acres in total. 34 started naturally. 3 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
Natural	34
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	26
Recreation and ceremony	20
Debris and open burning	9
Equipment and vehicle use	7
Arson/incendiarism	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	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 2012	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Tahoe National Forest	SQUIRREL
6 September 1998	Natural	under an acre	Tahoe National Forest	HAWK
5 September 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	8,422 acres	Tahoe National Forest	RALSTON
3 September 2018	Recreation and ceremony	1,120 acres	Tahoe National Forest	NORTH
28 September 1994	Natural	under an acre	Tahoe National Forest	FORBES
25 September 2011	Natural	under an acre	Eldorado National Forest	DELLER
25 September 2000	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Tahoe National Forest	LITTLE OAK
25 September 1994	Natural	under an acre	Tahoe National Forest	DEADWOOD

Every fire recorded in Placer County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 194 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 194 workings within 5 miles of Michigan Bluff-Last Chance Trail: 77 unknowns, 60 past producers, 36 occurrences, 20 producers. 20 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Chromium, Silver, Lead. 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
Buckeye	Tungsten	Producer
Bunker Mine	Chromium, Iron	Past Producer	1880, 1917
Herman Mine	Gold, Silver, Lead	Past Producer	Gold
Michigan Bluff District	Gold, Platinum, Silver, Lead, Iron, Zinc, Copper, Indium	Past Producer	1850
Sugar Pine	Nickel	Occurrence	1945
Double O	Gold, Silver	Past Producer
Forrest Hill	Gold, Silver	Past Producer
Herman Mine	Gold, Lead	Past Producer	1894
Rip Van Winkle	Gold, Lead	Past Producer	Galena, Gold, Pyrite
Bear Wallow	Chromium	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Placer County

Storms near this property

1 since 2017

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Michigan Bluff, the town this property stands in, in 1 storm report in 2017: 1 heavy rain. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
November 2017	Heavy Rain	Michigan Bluff	-	There was 5.88 of rain reported at Greek Store over 24 hours.

Every storm recorded in Placer County

Maps showing this location

13 surveys

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

1891 USGS Colfax quadrangle1:125000
1892 USGS Colfax quadrangle1:125000
1894 USGS Colfax quadrangle1:125000
1898 USGS Colfax quadrangle1:125000
1900 USGS Colfax quadrangle1:125000
1902 USGS Colfax quadrangle1:125000 - 7 printings
1938 USGS Colfax quadrangle1:125000 - 3 printings
1952 USGS Duncan Peak quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1952 USGS Michigan Bluff quadrangle1:24000 - 7 printings
1958 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000 - 4 printings
1960 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000
1977 USGS Truckee quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
2000 USGS Michigan Bluff quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 92000854 in Record Group 79.
Placer County	All 35 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.