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History · Lower Lake

Lower Lake’s post office opened in 1858

Most of Lower Lake was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1983. Below: maps from 1890 on and the census since 1980.

1858first post office
0on the National Register
3%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Lower Lake began

When was Lower Lake founded?

1858

The Lower Lake post office opened in 1858, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 1,043 in 19802020 census: 1,276168 years
Founding year: the first Lower Lake post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Lower 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 Lower Lake are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 1,755 in 2000; 1,276 people lived here in 2020.Mapped building by building3 fire insurance maps, 1890 to 1911, drew every building in Lower Lake.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Lower Lake’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Lower 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

Lower Lake, census by census

02004006008001,0001,2001,4001,6001,800198020002020Peak: 1,755

Peaked at 1,755 in 2000; 1,276 people lived here in 2020.

5 censuses, 1980–2020.

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

Every building

Lower Lake, building by building, 1890–1911

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.

Lower Lake fire insurance map, 1890, sheet 11890Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

The story

How Lower Lake came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Lower Lake.

Read it all →

Lower Lake was founded by Isaac Edmund Mitchell in 1858 as Grantville. He built the first house there. The settlement's first post office was opened in 1858.

The population was 1,276 at the 2020 census, up from 1,294 at the 2010 census.

The Clayton Fire started on August 12, 2016, in areas of Lake County not burned in the Valley and Rocky Point Jerusalem Fires which ravaged Lake County in the summer of 2015. On Sunday afternoon, August 14, 2016, all residents of the town were evacuated and fire razed large parts of the downtown and other areas of Lower Lake, including Copsey Creek Way. Many residents lost everything they had.

ChaptersLower Lake Stone Jail

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Lower Lake, 1858 to 2000

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1858Post officeThe Lower Lake post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1945On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 1974Born hereMystic is born here
  6. 21st century
  7. 2000CensusPopulation peaks at 1,755
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.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Lower Lake on the map, 1945 to 1993

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

Lower Lake on the 1945 USGS mapLower Lake on the 1958 USGS mapLower Lake on the 1975 USGS mapLower Lake on the 1993 USGS map1945Lower 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 Lower Lake.

Places that used to be

Places now gone and burying grounds

Lower Lake’s post office has been open since 1858.

Gone or out of use
Anderson Ranchlocale
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Lower Lake
Herndon-Copsey PioneerLower Lake

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

ClearlakeIts storyD

Questions about Lower Lake’s history

What year was Lower Lake founded?

The Lower Lake post office opened in 1858, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

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

Town Square →
Start a conversation
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, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.