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History · Bucks Lake

19% of Bucks Lake’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1950 on and the census since 2000.

0on the National Register
19%homes built before 1940
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What stands out about Bucks Lake’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Bucks Lake are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost a third of its people between 2000 and 2010, then more than doubled.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Bucks Lake’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bucks Lake’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Bucks Lake, census by census

02000202017 in 2000Low: 10

Lost a third of its people between 2000 and 2010, then more than doubled.

3 censuses, 2000–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bucks Lake’s Wikipedia page.

The story

How Bucks Lake came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Bucks Lake.

Read it all →

The area was first established as a ranch by Horace Bucklin and Francis Walker in 1850. A hotel and a post office were later built on the site. In 1928, Bucks Storage Dam was built on Bucks Creek, a tributary of the Feather River, creating the Bucks Lake reservoir and inundating the original site of the town.

Bucks Lake is now registered as California Historical Landmark #197.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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On the map

Bucks Lake on the map, 1950 to 1994

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bucks Lake. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Bucks Lake on the 1950 USGS mapBucks Lake on the 1979 USGS mapBucks Lake on the 1994 USGS map1950Bucks Lake sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Bucks Lake.

Places that used to be

Old corners

Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Bucks Lodge

Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Bucks Lake’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.