83 topographic sheets and 10 fire insurance
atlases across 2 places.
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From the record
4 National Register listings · 20 businesses named in the fire insurance atlases from 1892 to 1921 · the 1927 county history tells 0 stories and names 0 people.
Ohio within the United StatesPike County within Ohio
Explore by year
What the record shows
2 places in this county were surveyed for fire insurance: Waverly, Piketon, between 1885 and 1932.
10 fire insurance atlas(es) survive for the county. Topographic coverage is national; fire insurance survey reached only incorporated places with something worth insuring.
878 topographic sheet readings cover the county's settlements.
4 properties here are on the National Register of Historic Places, including 2 houses and farms.
4 of the 4 listings were added during the 1970s.
The Geographic Names Information System records 62 populated places in this county; 0 are covered by at least one topographic sheet.
1 public-domain county history, 1884, supply 12,049 words of narrative reproduced here in full.
Photographs
2 photographs,
Taken for the Office of War Information and
the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between
1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no
known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.
Governor Lucas House, Piketon, Pike County, OH Unattributed, . Library of CongressJones House (Stone), State Highway 24, Jasper, Pike County, OH Unattributed, . Library of Congress
Places on the National Register
4
Every property in this county listed on the
National Register of Historic Places, with the year it was listed and the
federal nomination document.
Pike County holds 0 covered bridges on
the National Register, more than any other property type here. Each is a listed
structure with a federal nomination on file.
Bird's-eye views and land ownership maps
2
Drawn when these were printed as
single large sheets: the town seen from the air, and the county
divided into its farms with every owner named. Each opens the
original at the Library of Congress.
Bird's-eye view (1860) - Bird's eye view of Camp Chase near Columbus, Ohio. Library of Congress.Bird's-eye view (1884) - Lakeside summer resort and camp ground, near Sandusky, Ohio. Library of Congress.
The county from the air
28 of 548 shown
Flown by the U.S. Geological Survey
between 1937 and 1989, the Aerial Photo Single Frames collection is
the definitive mid-century view of the land: fields, roads and rivers
as the camera saw them. 548 frames touch this county; the
selection below spreads across the decades of flights (at most four
per year), so one flight cannot crowd out the rest. The full set is
free to browse and download at
EarthExplorer under the dataset Aerial Photo Single
Frames.
1956-05-18, scale 1:30000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1956-05-18, scale 1:30000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1956-05-18, scale 1:30000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1956-05-18, scale 1:30000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1960-04-22, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1960-04-22, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1960-04-22, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1960-04-22, scale 1:24000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1971-04-16, scale 1:99228. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1971-04-16, scale 1:99228. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1971-04-16, scale 1:101580. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1971-04-16, scale 1:101580. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1974-05-01, scale 1:76000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1974-05-01, scale 1:76000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1974-05-01, scale 1:76000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1974-05-01, scale 1:76000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1975-04-06, scale 1:78000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1975-04-06, scale 1:78000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1975-04-06, scale 1:78000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1975-04-06, scale 1:78000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1979-11-01, scale 1:80000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1979-11-01, scale 1:80000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1979-11-01, scale 1:80000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1979-11-01, scale 1:80000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1994-06-16, scale 1:65000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1994-06-16, scale 1:65000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1994-06-16, scale 1:65000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.1994-06-16, scale 1:64000. U.S. Geological Survey aerial photograph.
City directories
3 volumes
The "who lived here, by year" answer:
pre-1929 public-domain directory volumes naming the county's people,
machine-read and searchable as text.
The thermometers that kept this
county's weather, and the gages that watched its rivers, as the
federal records hold them. The extremes below are measured values
from those records, not estimates.
WAVERLY1893 to 2026, hottest 40.6 C, coldest -33.9 C
Who lived here in 1950, one enumeration
district at a time, as the Census Bureau described each district.
Each row opens its official National Archives result, with Population
Schedules and ED Maps available there.
66-1Beaver village, comprising parts of Beaver and Marion townships: Beaver village - That part in Beaver township
Every Sanborn volume opens with a printed index
naming the town's mills, tanneries, hotels and works by proprietor. Those
indexes were read off the scanned sheets by machine and then matched to each
other, so a business surveyed four times appears here once, with the years it
survived. 3 of these 20 were named in more than one atlas. Each carries a
crop of the line it was read from: the spelling is the recogniser's and the
1880s lithographer's, and the scan behind it is the proof.
Every wildfire the federal occurrence
database records inside this county: 419 of them, burning about
1,472 acres. 3 started naturally and 13 were
recorded as arson. Each settlement page carries the fires within five
miles of it.
Reported cause
Fires
Debris and open burning
231
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
121
Arson/incendiarism
13
Smoking
12
Power generation/transmission/distribution
11
Equipment and vehicle use
10
Recreation and ceremony
9
Misuse of fire by a minor
6
Natural
3
Railroad operations and maintenance
3
The five largest, by the area the report
gives. One of them was set deliberately.
Date
Cause
Size
Reported by
Name on the report
7 March 2009
Smoking
100 acres
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
not named
2 April 2010
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
75 acres
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
not named
15 March 2014
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
70 acres
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
not named
3 February 2020
Smoking
50 acres
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
15405
24 April 2008
Arson/incendiarism
47 acres
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
not named
12 October 2012
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
40 acres
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
not named
7 November 2020
Debris and open burning
40 acres
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
15912
7 November 2020
Debris and open burning
37 acres
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
15913
Every settlement page carries the fires within five
miles of it - see the settlement index below.
Storms, 1956 to
2025
60 of 272 shown
The
NOAA Storm Events Database holds
272 reports for this county, causing 2 deaths,
16 injuries and about $4,292,500 in recorded property damage.
Each settlement page carries the reports that name it.
Kind of event
Reports
Thunderstorm Wind
158
Hail
36
Flood
33
Flash Flood
29
Tornado
15
Lightning
1
The most serious of them, by death, then
injury, then recorded damage. The accounts are quoted exactly as the
forecast office filed them.
The body of a man was found near his vehicle on Ohio Route 124, near the intersection of Ohio Route 772. The vehicle was found almost 700 feet inside signs placed in the roadway marking the road closed. Water inside the vehicle indicated that is had been at least half submerged in water. M58VE.
The National Weather Service confirmed straight-line wind damage off of State Route 772 in Buchanan. Three mobile homes were knocked off their foundation, picked up, lifted 20 yards, and were completely destroyed. The roof of one mobile home was carried approximately 50 yards in the same direction. Two additional mobile homes remained on their foundation and sustained minor damage. Approximately five trees were also uprooted. Damage in this case was determined to be straight-line because there were indications that all of the structures were blown consistently to the southeast. The mobile homes were subject to high winds because they were located at the summit of a hill in an open field. This allowed severe thunderstorm winds to lift the mobile homes off their foundations. Five people in mobile homes were injured when their mobile homes were knocked off of their foundations. The five people were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Several homes were flooded along State Route 32 with two people evacuated in Jackson Township. Numerous roads were flooded and closed across the southern part of the county.
The tornado initially touched down south of the Latham area along Dry Bone Road, State Route 124, and Grassy Fork Road. A path of enhanced tree damage from west of Dry Bone Road to east of Grassy Fork Road was indicative of a weak tornado. This corridor of damage was embedded within a much larger field of wind damage that affected large swaths of Pike County in general.||The more concentrated corridor of damage had a convergent nature to the felled trees, rather defined lateral bounds, and episodes of debris thrown upwind. Most notably, a garage that was heavily damaged on Grassy Fork Road had some of its debris thrown upwind of the storm motion. Several corridors of extensive tree damage between Grassy Fork Road and State Route 124 had a clear convergent pattern in the felled trees. Damage in these areas was consistent with wind speeds of around 90 mph. The tornado likely lifted in the hills east of Grassy Fork Road but the line of storms and significant storm outflow continued to produce widespread straight line wind damage in excess of 70 mph across much of Pike County, including some localized areas possibly approaching 80 mph.
A bridge was damaged along State Route 551. Several docks were heavily damaged at Lake White and some evacuations took place. Several roads in and around Waverly were closed.
The tornado first touched down on the south side of Beaver Pike just east of Bumgardner Road, knocking down a few trees.||More extensive damage was observed along Straight Creek Road just north of Beaver Pike, in a valley area between two southwest-to-northeast ridges. At one property, several trees were downed on top of vehicles, leaving the vehicles heavily damaged. Slightly further north, structural damage was observed at two properties. One house had several shingles removed from the southwest-facing segment of the roof, while also having siding removed from the northeast-facing wall. A barn at an adjacent property was collapsed and moved eastward from its original position, and sheet|metal from the barn was found up the hill across the road to the northeast. Tree damage in this area was significant, especially along the floor of the valley, where many trees were uprooted.||The tornado appears to have briefly turned to the east as it crossed the next hill, before shifting to the northeast again and causing additional damage on Carrs Run Road. One outbuilding suffered a partial wall failure, along with the removal of some sheet metal roofing. Tree damage on this road was not as significant as on Straight Creek Road, but was still noteworthy. At a property on the east side of Carrs Run Road, one very large tree was downed from north to south across a garage roof, essentially slicing the roof into two segments.||The tornado caused tree damage Ervin Hill Buckhollow Roads before it lifted.
Numerous large tree limbs were down and other limbs were twisted due to the tornado. There was minor roof damage to a home in the area as well. A mobile home was blown off of its foundation and the underpinning was blown out from under another mobile home. In addition, windows were blown out of another residence and a storage shed was destroyed. The maximum wind speed based on damage is around 80 miles per hour.
The tornado first touched down near Edwin Shoemaker Road and Tener Road in far northeastern Adams County and moved northeast into Pike County.||The most significant damage from this tornado occurred along Humphrey Road and Hackleshin Road in an area known as Humphrey Hollow. Tree damage in this area was extensive, especially on the steep hillsides surrounding the hollow. On one northwest-facing hillside around a bend on Humphrey Road, nearly every tree was uprooted down the hill. A few snapped trees were also noted in this area. There was strong evidence that the most significant damage occurred on the slopes facing downward along the direction of the wind; including generally east-facing slopes on the south side of the tornadic circulation, and west-facing slopes on the north side of the circulation. While structural damage in this area was mainly limited to impact damage from trees, some minor siding and roofing damage was noted at a few properties.||After leaving Humphrey Hollow, the tornado continued northeast across another inaccessible area, before causing similar tree damage along Grassy Fork Road and Fields Hollow Road in Fields Hollow.||Minor tree damage was observed along Sunfish Creek and State Route 124 east of Latham, with no evidence of damage reaching very far to the north of State Route 124.
A small tornado touched down along Route 776 and moved east. Several homes and a barn were damaged and trees were downed. Most of the damage was not severe.
A weak tornado briefly touched down, initially near Denver Road to the south of Left Fork Crooked Creek. Tornado damage consisted of primarily hardwood and softwood trees that were both snapped off above ground and uprooted. In addition, some structural damage was noted, including complete destruction of three outbuildings, and partial roof removal from a residential home. One additional home suffered minor structural damage to one side.||Damage showed a distinctively convergent pattern in the immediate vicinity of Left Fork Crooked Creek, particularly in several stands of trees. In this area, tree damage was extensive and significant.
The tornado touched down on the south side of Wynn Road and then followed the road. The tornado eventually crossed the road and lifted near Highway 104 southwest of Piketon. The damage from this tornado consisted of numerous large trees snapped off, uprooted, and lying in a convergent pattern toward the center of the most enhanced core of tree damage. One large tree landed on a mobile home, causing heavy structural damage. An eyewitness observed the tornado which corroborates the damage path. Based on the damage surveyed, the maximum estimated wind speed of this tornado was 75 miles per hour.
The tornado touched down near Highway 772 and Left Fork Road in extreme northwest Scioto County at 1746 EST, and traveled almost .2 miles before crossing into Pike County at 1747 EST. The path width of the tornado while in Scioto County was around 100 yards. The tornado progressed east northeast along and to the north of Camp Creek Road for nearly 4 miles in Pike County, before lifting at 1750 EST. While on the ground in Pike County, the path width of the tornado expanded to around 200 yards. Damage along the path of the tornado was primarily to trees, with numerous trees snapped and uprooted. A mobile home on Camp Creek Road was damaged with portions of the roof removed, causing an exterior wall to collapse. The resident of that home reported seeing a tornado on the ground approaching the home. Due to heavily forested terrain in this area, the path length and width are approximated as best as possible from accessible roads. Based on the damage surveyed, the maximum estimated wind speed of this tornado was 80 miles per hour in both Scioto and Pike Counties.
A tornado touched down briefly just southwest of the town of Omega. Two barns had portions of their roofs lifted off. The garage doors to both barns were collapsed inward. Two softwood trees were snapped at their bases near the barns. This tornado was rated EF-0.
Two large trees were snapped and one tree was uprooted due to damaging thunderstorm winds. Two trees fell onto two different mobile homes due to the winds.
Trees were reported down with one tree on a house due to damaging thunderstorm winds. Metal roofing was also peeled off of a home due to the thunderstorm winds.
A tornado touched down at the Pike County Fairgrounds where a storage shed was destroyed. Metal debris was strewn about the property. Another building on the property sustained roof damage. The maximum wind speed based on damage is around 80 miles per hour.
Damage indicates that the tornado touched down briefly in two locations. The initial touch down occurred near Loop Road where an estimated 15 trees were uprooted and knocked down. The tornado then briefly lifted before touching down again in a cemetery off of Bailey Chapel Road. There, it uprooted and knocked down approximately 10 more trees, and lifted a nearby trampoline over a fence.
Trees were knocked down across the western part of the county.
Mines and
quarries
11 recorded
The Survey's mineral resources record
lists 11 workings inside this county. 6 still
produce and 5 are closed or unrecorded. Each settlement
page carries the workings within five miles of it.
Commodity
Workings
Sand and Gravel, Construction
7
Stone, Crushed/Broken
3
Limestone, General
1
The least common of them first, because a
county's hundredth gravel pit says nothing its first ten did not.
Museum specimens collected inside this
county and catalogued with a date and a place: 2,335 of them, by
kingdom 1,917 animalia, 272 plantae, 141 fungi, 3 protozoa, 2 unrecorded. Each is a physical object in a named collection, not a
sighting. Held by Ohio State University - Fish Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM), Ohio State University - Bird Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM), UMMZ, NY, CINC, Ohio State University - Amphibian Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM) among others, and each settlement page carries
the specimens collected near it.
The oldest of them. A specimen proves
something was collected on that day; its absence proves nothing.
Ohio State University - Bird Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM) OSUM Birds B 5085
The townships, in 1927
12,049 words
History of the Newton Families of Colonial America, with American History of Family Interest Not Obtainable Elsewhere devotes a chapter to each township:
its boundaries and streams, who settled it and when, the mills, the
schools and the churches. All 1 are reproduced here in full. Each row
shows the township's own shape and where it lies in the county, drawn from
the Census Bureau's boundary. Which settlements belong to which township
is computed from that same boundary, not taken from the book.
Named settlements recorded in the Geographic Names
Information System, each with the topographic sheets covering it. Villages,
hamlets and abandoned places alike. Each is shown with the watercourse or
landform it stands on and the survey quadrangle it falls on. The 2
places that were also surveyed for fire insurance come first, with the
number of atlases and photographs held for them.
The complete index, with nothing left out.
Each of these is a separate record with its own page: a federal survey
report, or the case file that argued a property on to the National
Register. Both are public domain and reproduced word for word.
Topographic sheets. USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, county index, measured from the bulk metadata.
Fire insurance maps. Library of Congress Sanborn collection, faceted to this county.
Photographs. Each place queried individually against the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs search.
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.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
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.