Alpha, Kentucky

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Cumberland City census division. It lies in ZIP code area 42603. The Survey maps it on the Cumberland City quadrangle. It stands 1,014 feet above sea level.

Alpha within Clinton County

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 10 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.

1954 USGS Cumberland City quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1956 USGS Corbin quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1958 USGS Corbin quadrangle1:250000
1978 USGS Cumberland City quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1985 USGS Tompkinsville quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

Fires near this place

76 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 76 fires within 5 miles of Alpha between 1998 and 2019, burning about 2,559 acres in total. None started naturally. 9 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
Debris and open burning	45
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	17
Arson/incendiarism	9
Railroad operations and maintenance	2
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Smoking	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	1

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
14 September 2002	Railroad operations and maintenance	2.0 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named
7 April 2001	Arson/incendiarism	3.0 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named
5 April 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	6.0 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named
27 April 2009	Debris and open burning	10 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named
19 April 2014	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	HUBBARD HOLLAR
19 April 2010	Debris and open burning	22 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named
18 April 2010	Debris and open burning	15 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named
18 April 2010	Debris and open burning	50 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Clinton 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Nora	1.7 miles	10
Narvel	2.4 miles	10
Cartwright	3.5 miles	10
Cumberland City	4.3 miles	10
Marlow	4.5 miles	10
Watauga	4.8 miles	10
Savage	5.2 miles	11
Williams Creek (historical)	5.3 miles	10

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 Alpha	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q4734864	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 507389. 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.