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Benham, Kentucky

20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1894 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the Cumberland census division. It lies in ZIP code area 40823. It stands on Maggard Branch. The Survey maps it on the Benham quadrangle. 512 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,591 feet above sea level.

Benham within Harlan County

On record in Benham

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 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Benham grew from 500 to 512 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
2010500
2020512+12 (+2%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

12 surveys from 20 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

90 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 90 fires within 5 miles of Benham between 1997 and 2020, burning about 10,283 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 17 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 burning36
Missing data/not specified/undetermined26
Arson/incendiarism17
Recreation and ceremony6
Natural2
Equipment and vehicle use1
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Railroad operations and maintenance1

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
7 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined8.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
4 September 2007Debris and open burning125 acresKentucky Division of ForestryLITTLE SHEPHERD TRAIL
24 September 2007Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
28 June 2012Equipment and vehicle use1.5 acresKentucky Division of ForestryCHUCK FIRE
23 June 2008Debris and open burning1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
21 June 2002Recreation and ceremony20 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
20 June 2016Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestrySANDHILL
19 June 2008Natural1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Harlan County

Mines and quarries near this place

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Benham: 2 prospects, 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Iron, Silica. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Hurricane Gap Sand PitSilicaProspect
J.H. Mills ProspectIronProspect
Orebank RidgeIronPast Producer

Every working recorded in Harlan County

Storms near this place

1 since 2022

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Benham in 1 storm report in 2022: 1 thunderstorm wind. 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
May 2022Thunderstorm WindBenham-A member of the public reported a tree blown down onto Mountain Street in Lynch, KY.

Every storm recorded in Harlan 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
Clutts1.3 miles20
Lynch1.4 miles20
Blair1.8 miles20
Cumberland2.3 miles20
Clover2.7 miles20
Sand Hill3.2 miles23
Chad3.9 miles23
Hiram5.2 miles23

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 BenhamAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3180793The 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 486849. 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.

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.