Rainbow Lake, New York
25 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1902 and the latest in 1999. It stands in Brighton town. It lies in ZIP code area 12976. It lies near Buck Hill. The Survey maps it on the Gabriels quadrangle. It stands 1,690 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1902 to 1999The same ground, surveyed 97 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1902 against another survey:
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 25 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1902 USGS Saranac quadrangle1:62500
- 1904 USGS Saranac quadrangle1:62500, 10 printings
- 1948 USGS Ogdensburg quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1951 USGS Ogdensburg quadrangle1:250000
- 1953 USGS Ogdensburg quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS Saranac Lake quadrangle1:62500, 5 printings
- 1961 USGS Ogdensburg quadrangle1:250000
- 1978 USGS Bloomingdale quadrangle1:25000
- 1985 USGS Tupper Lake quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1999 USGS Bloomingdale quadrangle1:25000
Fires near this place
30 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 30 fires within 5 miles of Rainbow Lake between 1999 and 2020, burning about 55 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 1 was 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 12 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9 |
| Natural | 4 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 September 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | not named |
| 5 September 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 9.2 acres | Fire Department of New York | not named |
| 29 September 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | New York Forest Rangers | COOLER POND #2 |
| 25 September 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | New York Forest Rangers | COOLER POND FIRE #1 |
| 17 September 2015 | Natural | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | LOWER ST. REGIS FIRE |
| 16 September 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | New York Forest Rangers | ROUTE 30 |
| 10 September 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.1 acres | Fire Department of New York | not named |
| 6 August 2001 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | New York Forest Rangers | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Rainbow Lake: 1 past producer, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: 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.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tucker Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Unnamed Prospect | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
3 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rainbow Lake in 3 storm reports between 2006 and 2011: 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rainbow Lake | $10,000 | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rainbow Lake | $5,000 | Trees down along Jones Pond road. |
| June 2007 | Hail | Rainbow Lake | - | Penny size hail reported. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gabriels | 2.5 miles | 25 | |
| Onchiota | 3.2 miles | 25 | |
| Paul Smiths Easy Street | 3.5 miles | 25 | |
| Paul Smiths | 4.7 miles | 24 | |
| Harrietstown | 4.9 miles | 25 | |
| Vermontville | 5.8 miles | 25 | |
| Keese Mill | 7.0 miles | 24 | |
| Upper Saint Regis | 7.0 miles | 24 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Rainbow Lake | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q48740200 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 970511. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
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.









