Buckhorn, Kentucky
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1891 and the latest in 1979. It stands in the Buckhorn census division. It lies in ZIP code area 41721. It stands on Schoolhouse Branch. The Survey maps it on the Buckhorn quadrangle. 89 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 755 feet above sea level.
On record in Buckhorn
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 figuresBuckhorn fell from 162 to 89 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 162 | |
| 2020 | 89 | -73 (-45%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 14 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1891 USGS Hazard quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1913 USGS Buckhorn quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1953 USGS Buckhorn quadrangle1:24000
- 1957 USGS Jenkins quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Jenkins quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Buckhorn quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1977 USGS Hazard quadrangle1:100000
- 1979 USGS Buckhorn quadrangle1:24000
Photographs
1 photograph, 1940Taken 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.
Wolcott, Marion Post, 1940. Library of Congress
Fires near this place
161 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 161 fires within 5 miles of Buckhorn between 1994 and 2020, burning about 13,637 acres in total. None started naturally. 48 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 | 61 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 48 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 38 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 12 |
| Smoking | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 7 September 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 3.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 24 September 2007 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 23 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 415 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 20 September 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | BOWLING CREEK RD. |
| 21 August 2008 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 24 June 2012 | Debris and open burning | 14 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | BARWICK |
| 19 June 2012 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | CAM JOHNSO |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
23 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Buckhorn in 23 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 11 thunderstorm wind, 6 hail, 3 heavy rain, 2 flash flood. 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buckhorn | $10,000 | Numerous trees were blown down. One tree fell and crushed a car at Squabble Creek. No injuries were reported. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buckhorn | $6,000 | Thunderstorm wind gusts tore down numerous large branches. |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buckhorn | $2,000 | Bleachers and a building at ballfield were damaged. |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buckhorn | $1,000 | Social media report of trees down in the community of Buckhorn. One downed tree demolished a swing set and trampoline. |
| December 2019 | Flood | Buckhorn | $1,000 | Dispatch reported water on Kentucky Highway 2022 near Buckhorn. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buckhorn | $1,000 | A tree was blown down on Hwy 28 in Buckhorn. |
| May 2023 | Hail | Buckhorn | - | Army Corp. or Engineer employee relayed a picture of ping pong ball-sized (1.50 inch) hail that fell at Buckhorn Lake Dam. |
| January 2022 | Heavy Rain | Buckhorn | - | The US Army Corps of Engineer's station at Buckhorn Lake recorded 4.31 inches of rainfall in a 48-hour period ending at 7am on January 2, 2022. |
| March 2021 | Flash Flood | Buckhorn | - | Picture from social media shows a high school being inundated with water in the Buckhorn community. Water is flowing at a pretty good clip, with rushing water very evident. |
| June 2021 | Heavy Rain | Buckhorn | - | The USACE observing site measured 1.60 inches of rainfall in a 24-hour period. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buckhorn | - | A citizen observed trees blown down at a campground near Buckhorn Lake. |
| August 2013 | Heavy Rain | Buckhorn | - | The 24 hour rainfall total was 3.45 inches. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buckhorn | - | A couple of trees were blown down off of KY Hwy 28 near Buckhorn High School. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buckhorn | - | Several trees down in Buckhorn State Park with one tree across the road near the Corp of Engineers building. |
| August 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buckhorn | - | One tree down across Highway 2022 near Buckhorn, and another down in Vicco. |
| June 2003 | Flash Flood | Buckhorn | - | Kentucky Highway 2022 had 8 to 10 inches of water flowing across it from the flooding of Squabble Creek. |
| June 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buckhorn | - | Trees were reported to be blown down. |
| April 2015 | Hail | Buckhorn | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Buckhorn | - | no account filed |
| July 2007 | Hail | Buckhorn | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buckhorn | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Buckhorn | - | no account filed |
| April 1998 | Hail | Buckhorn | - | no account filed |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Hill (historical) | 0.6 miles | 14 | |
| Johnson (historical) | 1.9 miles | 14 | |
| Gays Creek | 2.9 miles | 14 | |
| Bowlingtown (historical) | 3.0 miles | 14 | |
| Middle Squabble (historical) | 3.2 miles | 13 | |
| Doorway | 4.9 miles | 13 | |
| Lower Leatherwood (historical) | 5.3 miles | 14 | |
| Saul | 5.3 miles | 14 |
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 Buckhorn | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1873003 | 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 511025. 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.








