Hardshell, Kentucky
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1891 and the latest in 1977. It stands in the Hardshell census division. It lies in ZIP code area 41317. It stands on Fugate Fork. The Survey maps it on the Haddix quadrangle. It stands 787 feet above sea level.
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 13 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
- 1954 USGS Haddix quadrangle1:24000
- 1957 USGS Jenkins quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Jenkins quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Haddix quadrangle1:24000
- 1972 USGS Haddix quadrangle1:24000
- 1977 USGS Hazard quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
281 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 281 fires within 5 miles of Hardshell between 1997 and 2020, burning about 15,862 acres in total. None started naturally. 80 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 | 123 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 80 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 67 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 9 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 September 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 5.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 23 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 20 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 18 September 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 10 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 11 September 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 300 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 17 August 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 17 August 2008 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 14 August 2002 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
6 since 2018Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Hardshell in 6 storm reports between 2018 and 2025: 2 flash flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 debris flow, 1 hail. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2022 | Flash Flood | Hardshell | $20,000 | Public reported that there was flooding in the community of Hardshell, with water surrounding homes and people stranded. |
| May 2025 | Hail | Hardshell | - | A social media report along Russell Branch Road, near Flint Ridge Cemetery Road, showed mostly smaller stones, but a couple of quarter-sized stones mixed in. |
| July 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hardshell | - | Dispatch relayed a report of a tree down on Hardshell Caney Road just off of Kentucky Highway 476 east of Clayhole. |
| May 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hardshell | - | A citizen observed a tree blown down along Kentucky Highway 476 near Hardshell. |
| October 2018 | Debris Flow | Hardshell | - | Dispatch reported a mudslide near Hardshell as repeated rounds of heavy rainfall occurred. |
| October 2018 | Flash Flood | Hardshell | - | Dispatch reported water flowing across Kentucky Highway 476 near Hardshell. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clayhole | 2.5 miles | 13 | |
| Flintville | 3.2 miles | 13 | |
| Noble | 3.3 miles | 15 | |
| Watts | 3.4 miles | 13 | |
| Ned | 3.5 miles | 13 | |
| Lost Creek | 4.3 miles | 13 | |
| Press | 5.0 miles | 14 | |
| Wilstacy | 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 Hardshell | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q5656319 | 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 508184. 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.







