O'Brien, Oregon
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1917 and the latest in 1996. It stands in the Cave Junction census division. It lies in ZIP code area 97534. It stands on Grannys Run. The Survey maps it on the O'Brien quadrangle. 470 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,414 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresO'Brien fell from 504 to 470 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 504 | |
| 2020 | 470 | -34 (-7%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 17 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.
- 1917 USGS Kerby quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1918 USGS Kerby quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1945 USGS Kerby quadrangle1:125000
- 1954 USGS Cave Junction quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Medford quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Medford quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Medford quadrangle1:250000
- 1989 USGS Grants Pass quadrangle1:100000
- 1989 USGS O'Brien quadrangle1:24000
- 1996 USGS O'Brien quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
242 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 242 fires within 5 miles of O'Brien between 1992 and 2020, burning about 7,457 acres in total. 35 started naturally. 38 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 |
|---|---|
| Equipment and vehicle use | 45 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 38 |
| Natural | 35 |
| Smoking | 23 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 21 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 21 |
| Debris and open burning | 20 |
| Other causes | 19 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 8 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 7 |
| Fireworks | 5 |
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 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 79 acres | Medford District | LONE MOUNTAIN |
| 9 September 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest | ILLIONIOS GOLD |
| 9 September 2005 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Grants Pass Unit | CASCADE DR |
| 8 September 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Grants Pass Unit | HAYSTACK |
| 7 September 1994 | Smoking | under an acre | Grants Pass Unit | REDWOOD HWY. MP 33 |
| 6 September 2003 | Natural | under an acre | Grants Pass Unit | 4 CORNERS |
| 5 September 2003 | Natural | under an acre | Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest | BYBEE # 3 |
| 5 September 2003 | Natural | under an acre | Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest | BYBEE # 2 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 91 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 91 workings within 5 miles of O'Brien: 30 occurrences, 28 past producers, 15 producers, 11 prospects. 15 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Chromium, Nickel, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bailey Mine/Waldo Area Placers | Gold, PGE | Past Producer | ||
| Daisy | Gold, Copper | Occurrence | Bornite, Chalcopyrite, Gold, Malachite | |
| Deep Gravel Mine | Gold, Iridium, Osmium, Platinum | Producer | 1874 | |
| Esterley Chrome Mine | Chromium, Iridium, Palladium, Ruthenium, Rhodium, Platinum | Past Producer | Chromite | |
| Esterley Chromite Mine | Chromium, Uranium, PGE | Past Producer | ||
| Esterley Placer | Gold, Silver, Platinum, Chromium, Iridium, Ruthenium, Rhodium, Palladium, Osmium | Producer | Stream Placer | |
| Josephine Creek | Nickel, Chromium, Cobalt, Iron | Past Producer | ||
| Reynold's Copper Mine | Gold, Copper, Nickel | Occurrence | Copper, Pyrrhotite | |
| Reynold's Copper Mine | Gold, Nickel, Copper | Prospect | ||
| Rough and Ready Creek | Nickel, Chromium | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
2 since 2012Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names O'Brien in 2 storm reports in 2012: 2 flood. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2012 | Flood | O Brien | - | The Mountain Man RV Park about halfway between O'Brien and Cave Junction had to be partially evacuated due to flooding. A storm total of 12.70 inches of rain was reported by a spotter 2WSW O'Brien. |
| March 2012 | Flood | O Brien | - | Flooding was reported on the west fork of the Illinois river. Flooding was reported at Mountain Man RV Park 2N Cave Junction. Slate Creek near Selma was reported out of its banks. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Allentown (historical) | 4.4 miles | 17 | |
| Takilma | 4.6 miles | 17 | |
| Brown City (historical) | 5.5 miles | 17 | |
| Bridgeview | 6.6 miles | 17 | |
| Cave Junction | 7.2 miles | 17 | |
| Althouse (historical) | 7.8 miles | 17 | |
| Kerby | 9.2 miles | 17 | |
| Holland | 9.6 miles | 17 |
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 O'Brien | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1927792 | 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 1147100. 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.









