Pilot Rock, Oregon
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1979. It stands in the Pilot Rock census division. It lies in ZIP code area 97868. It stands on West Birch Creek. The Survey maps it on the Pilot Rock quadrangle. 1,328 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,637 feet above sea level.
Population over time
12 figuresPilot Rock grew from 197 to 1,328 between 1910 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1910 | 197 | |
| 1920 | 361 | +164 (+83%) |
| 1930 | 275 | -86 (-24%) |
| 1940 | 358 | +83 (+30%) |
| 1950 | 847 | +489 (+137%) |
| 1960 | 1,695 | +848 (+100%) |
| 1970 | 1,612 | -83 (-5%) |
| 1980 | 1,630 | +18 (+1%) |
| 1990 | 1,478 | -152 (-9%) |
| 2000 | 1,533 | +55 (+4%) |
| 2010 | 1,502 | -31 (-2%) |
| 2020 | 1,328 | -174 (-12%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 8 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.
- 1953 USGS Pendleton quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1956 USGS Pendleton quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Pilot Rock quadrangle1:24000
- 1979 USGS La Grande quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
5 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Pilot Rock between 1996 and 2014, burning about 1,003 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None 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 |
|---|---|
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 August 1996 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Umatilla Agency | NEZ |
| 2 August 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 894 acres | Pendleton Unit | STEWART CREEK |
| 9 July 2012 | Natural | 73 acres | Umatilla Agency | MCKAY |
| 5 July 2014 | Equipment and vehicle use | 35 acres | Umatilla Agency | RATTLESNAKE |
| 24 June 2014 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.3 acres | Umatilla Agency | SHAW ROAD |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 14 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 14 workings within 5 miles of Pilot Rock: 10 past producers, 4 producers. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pilot Rock | Stone | Past Producer | ||
| Quarry | Stone | Past Producer | ||
| Hoeft | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Pilot Rock Pit | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Unnamed Pit | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Hoeft | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Louis Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
16 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Pilot Rock in 16 storm reports between 1997 and 2015: 7 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 1 wildfire. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pilot Rock | - | Lots of limbs and part of a tree downed. |
| June 2010 | Hail | Pilot Rock | - | Dime to penny size hail accumulated to near 2 inches and caused minor vegetation damage. Street flooding occurred due to the hail overwhelming culverts. |
| June 2009 | Heavy Rain | Pilot Rock | - | In 15 minutes, 0.75 inch of rainfall and small hail fell which produced minor flooding over the road. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pilot Rock | - | Two inch diameter tree limbs downed. |
| August 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pilot Rock | - | Wind brought down over 1 dozen tree branches greater than 2 inches in diameter. |
| August 2008 | Hail | Pilot Rock | - | Large hail wrecked garden. |
| August 2003 | Wildfire | Pilot Rock | - | Twelve loads of retardant were dropped on a lightning sparked 400 acre fire. |
| August 2003 | Lightning | Pilot Rock | - | Lightning ignited most of an 800-ton haystack on the Bar 41 Ranch in Pilot Rock. |
| June 1999 | Hail | Pilot Rock | - | Spotters in Pilot Rock reported hail covering the ground to a depth of one inch and a 54 mph wind gust. |
| June 1999 | Hail | Pilot Rock | - | Tree damage due to hail reported 10 miles west of Pilot Rock. Hail covered the ground to a depth of one inch. |
| May 1997 | Flash Flood | Pilot Rock | - | A flash flood sent water into Pilot Rock High School and Junior High School, covered parts of highway 395, flooded a few basements, and filled a house and yard with mud lifting it off its foundation. |
| May 2015 | Flash Flood | Pilot Rock | - | no account filed |
| August 2008 | Hail | Pilot Rock | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Pilot Rock | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Hail | Pilot Rock | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Funnel Cloud | Pilot Rock | - | no account filed |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nye | 8.1 miles | 8 | |
| Green Meadows | 9.3 miles | 10 | |
| Glendale | 11.1 miles | 12 | |
| McKay | 11.4 miles | 9 | |
| Tutuilla | 11.9 miles | 11 | |
| Rieth | 12.5 miles | 12 | |
| Pendleton | 13.2 miles | 12 | |
| Pendair Heights | 14.1 miles | 12 |
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 Pilot Rock | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q769242 | 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 1125381. 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.



