Gold Bar, Washington
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1921 and the latest in 1989. It stands in the Sultan census division. It lies in ZIP code area 98251. It stands on Duffey Creek. The Survey maps it on the Gold Bar quadrangle. 2,403 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 207 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresGold Bar grew from 2,075 to 2,403 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 | 2,075 | |
| 2020 | 2,403 | +328 (+16%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 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.
- 1921 USGS Sultan quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1923 USGS Sultan quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS Index quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Wenatchee quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1975 USGS Skykomish River quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1989 USGS Gold Bar quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
What the histories say of this town
918 words1 chapter about Gold Bar from the published histories of the county, public domain and reproduced complete.
| Chapter | From | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Snohomish County Washington, Past Achievements, Present Status, Future | Snohomish County Washington, Past Achievements, Present Status, Future Possibilities (1914) | 918 words |
Fires near this place
70 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 70 fires within 5 miles of Gold Bar between 1992 and 2020, burning about 339 acres in total. None 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 26 |
| Debris and open burning | 21 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9 |
| Fireworks | 7 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
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 1998 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
| 29 September 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | MAY CREEK |
| 29 September 2012 | Smoking | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | KELLOGG LK RD |
| 26 September 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | REECE RD |
| 24 September 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
| 2 September 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | BASIN |
| 17 September 1994 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
| 14 September 2011 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | MAY CLIFF |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 19 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 19 workings within 5 miles of Gold Bar: 11 past producers, 3 unknowns, 3 occurrences, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Copper, Gold, Limestone, Dimension. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copper Belle | Copper, Gold, Silver, Tungsten | Past Producer | Chalcopyrite, Hematite, Magnetite | |
| Copper Belle | Silver, Gold, Copper, Tungsten | Past Producer | 1910, 1911 | |
| Gold Bar and Elmo | Lead | Prospect | ||
| Martin, Gail L | Copper, Tungsten | Unknown | ||
| Red Cross Prospect | Copper, Gold, Silver | Occurrence | Bornite, Chalcopyrite, Pyrite | |
| Anaconda Prospect | Copper, Gold | Unknown | ||
| Gold Bar | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Gold Bar Placer | Gold | Occurrence | ||
| Proctor Creek Pit | Limestone, Dimension | Producer | ||
| Wallace Falls | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
2 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Gold Bar in 2 storm reports between 2009 and 2023: 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 2009 | Flood | Gold Bar | $6,500,000 | More than 50 roads in the county were flooded and about 40 were closed, including Highway 9. Highway 530 was closed in multiple locations. Schools in the Stanwood-Camano district were closed for 2 days. Most of Stanwood flooded, even businesses that hadn't flooded in 25 years. Many people were able to evacuate animals before the waters rose, however dozens had to leave via boat. Nearly 500 homes were flooded. Flood waters blew a hole in a dike on Ebey Island. |
| December 2023 | Flood | Gold Bar | - | Flooding occurred on the Snohomish River and record flooding occurred on the North Fork, South Fork, and the main stem Stillaguamish River. Water rescues were need in the Stanwood area. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| May Creek | 1.6 miles | 17 | |
| Startup | 2.4 miles | 17 | |
| Reiter | 3.7 miles | 17 | |
| North Sultan | 6.1 miles | 15 | |
| Sultan | 6.3 miles | 20 | |
| Index | 7.9 miles | 18 | |
| Woods Creek | 10.8 miles | 16 | |
| Halford | 11.3 miles | 18 |
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 Gold Bar | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1506914 | 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 1520077. 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.





