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Gainestown, Alabama

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in the Walker Springs census division. It lies in ZIP code area 36540. The Survey maps it on the Gainestown quadrangle.

Gainestown within Clarke County

On record in Gainestown

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 3 records

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 surveys from 7 printed sheets

Matched 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.

Fires near this place

105 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 105 fires within 5 miles of Gainestown between 1994 and 2020, burning about 1,145 acres in total. None 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
Arson/incendiarism38
Debris and open burning33
Missing data/not specified/undetermined26
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Equipment and vehicle use2
Smoking2
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Recreation and ceremony1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
4 September 2002Smoking1.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
19 September 2014Missing data/not specified/undetermined18 acresAlabama Forestry CommissionSWR-20140919-001
14 September 2019Debris and open burning9.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20190914-4
17 August 2020Arson/incendiarism15 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20200817-3
3 July 2016Arson/incendiarism20 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20160703-4
5 June 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined7.0 acresAlabama Forestry CommissionSWR-20130605-001
24 June 2006Arson/incendiarism20 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
12 June 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined12 acresAlabama Forestry CommissionGAINSTOWN ROAD, AL

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Clarke County

Storms near this place

6 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Gainestown in 6 storm reports between 2003 and 2025: 4 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 1 hail. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 2011Tornado (EF2)Gainestown$145,000The tornado touched down taking a large section of roof off of a wood frame single story home near the center of circulation, pulling a single-wide mobile home off of its foundation on the north side of the circulation, and lifting off the roof of a nearby double-wide mobile home on the south side of the circulation. The tornado circulation quickly widened to 200 yards and strengthened, rolling another single-wide mobile home 60 yards then causing it to disintegrate as it hit a large tree. The mobile home's bent undercarriage was left about 60 yards to the left of the tornado path. The tornado continued to the east and quickly lifted in a pine forest.
May 2003Thunderstorm WindGainestown$30,000High thunderstorm winds blew down several trees near Gainestown, one falling on the roof of a house, producing damage. Half dollar sized hail was also reported with this storm.
April 2017Thunderstorm WindGainestown$10,000Winds estimated at 70 mph blew a porch off a house on Walker Springs Road.
March 2019Thunderstorm WindGainestown$5,000A downed tree blocking the road at Walker Springs Road near Overstreet Grocery.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindGainestown-High winds caused damage to a metal roof of a home.
February 2016HailGainestown-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Clarke County

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 PlaceDistance Sheets
Barlow Bend3.2 miles7
Alma3.5 miles12
Manila4.6 miles7
Choctaw Bluff6.4 miles12
Rockville8.1 miles12
Walker Springs8.4 miles8
Suggsville9.9 miles7
Carlton10.7 miles11

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 GainestownAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q5517238The 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 156387. 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.

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.