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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.

Hardshell within Breathitt County

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 13 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

281 since 1997

Regional 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 burning123
Arson/incendiarism80
Missing data/not specified/undetermined67
Recreation and ceremony9
Railroad operations and maintenance1
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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
26 September 1999Arson/incendiarism5.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
23 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined5.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
20 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
18 September 1999Arson/incendiarism10 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
11 September 2002Recreation and ceremony300 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
17 August 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined5.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
17 August 2008Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
14 August 2002Debris and open burning1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Breathitt County

Storms near this place

6 since 2018

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
January 2022Flash FloodHardshell$20,000Public reported that there was flooding in the community of Hardshell, with water surrounding homes and people stranded.
May 2025HailHardshell-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 2019Thunderstorm WindHardshell-Dispatch relayed a report of a tree down on Hardshell Caney Road just off of Kentucky Highway 476 east of Clayhole.
May 2019Thunderstorm WindHardshell-A citizen observed a tree blown down along Kentucky Highway 476 near Hardshell.
October 2018Debris FlowHardshell-Dispatch reported a mudslide near Hardshell as repeated rounds of heavy rainfall occurred.
October 2018Flash FloodHardshell-Dispatch reported water flowing across Kentucky Highway 476 near Hardshell.

Every storm recorded in Breathitt 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
Clayhole2.5 miles13
Flintville3.2 miles13
Noble3.3 miles15
Watts3.4 miles13
Ned3.5 miles13
Lost Creek4.3 miles13
Press5.0 miles14
Wilstacy5.3 miles14

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 HardshellAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q5656319The 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.