Cumberland, 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 Looney Creek. The Survey maps it on the Benham quadrangle. 1,947 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,444 feet above sea level.
On record in Cumberland
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
Cumberland Central Business Districtlisted 1996
Population over time
3 figuresCumberland fell from 2,611 to 1,947 between 2000 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 2,611 | |
| 2010 | 2,237 | -374 (-14%) |
| 2020 | 1,947 | -290 (-13%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
12 surveys from 20 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.
- 1894 USGS Estillville quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1921 USGS Big Stone Gap quadrangle1:48000
- 1922 USGS Big Stone Gap quadrangle1:62500
- 1929 USGS Big Stone Gap quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1935 USGS Benham quadrangle1:24000
- 1954 USGS Benham quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1955 USGS Johnson City quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Johnson City quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Johnson City quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Johnson City quadrangle1:250000
- 1976 USGS Benham quadrangle1:24000
- 1981 USGS Bristol quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Photographs
1 photograph,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.
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress
Fires near this place
107 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 107 fires within 5 miles of Cumberland between 1997 and 2020, burning about 13,657 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 21 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 | 44 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 31 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 21 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 6 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 4 September 2007 | Debris and open burning | 125 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | LITTLE SHEPHERD TRAIL |
| 24 September 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 28 June 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.5 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | CHUCK FIRE |
| 23 June 2008 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 21 June 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 20 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 20 June 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | SANDHILL |
| 19 June 2008 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
3 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Cumberland: 1 prospect, 1 producer, 1 past producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Silica, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Iron. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hurricane Gap Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Hurricane Gap Sand Pit | Silica | Prospect | ||
| Orebank Ridge | Iron | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
13 since 2004Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cumberland in 13 storm reports between 2004 and 2022: 7 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 2 hail, 1 heavy rain. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cumberland | $20,000 | A tree fell on a house on Parker St. in Cumberland, KY. No injuries were reported. |
| July 2020 | Flash Flood | Cumberland | $10,000 | Two to three inches of rain fell in the Cumberland community of Harlan County. City police reported high water across a handful of streets in the community, including multiple road closures. College road along the south side of town was among those listed. The police department also reported that one of their police cruisers was stuck in the flood waters and would not start. |
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cumberland | $5,000 | Trees approximately 3 inches in diameter were blown down in yards. Tree limbs were blown down and into roads as well. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cumberland | $5,000 | Power lines were blown down. |
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cumberland | $3,000 | Multiple large tree limbs and branches were blown down in yards and roadways near Cumberland. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cumberland | - | Several trees and limbs were blown down in the eastern portion of Harlan county in the Cumberland vicinity. |
| April 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cumberland | - | A citizen reported a tree blown down onto Wood Street in Cumberland. |
| February 2018 | Flood | Cumberland | - | Many roads in and around Cumberland were covered with water, including Main Street near Highway 119. A written state of emergency was declared for Harlan County during the height of the flooding. |
| March 2017 | Hail | Cumberland | - | A Skywarn storm spotter observed penny sized hail in Cumberland. |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cumberland | - | A tree that was uprooted by thunderstorm wind gusts fell onto a nearby home. |
| September 2011 | Heavy Rain | Cumberland | - | As 730 am on September 6th, 5.40 inches of rain had fallen in Cumberland. This was a 48 hour rainfall total. |
| April 2006 | Hail | Cumberland | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Flash Flood | Cumberland | - | 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.
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 Cumberland | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3180171 | 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 511673. 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.











