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Jenkins, Kentucky

18 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1890 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Jenkins census division. It lies in ZIP code area 41537. It stands on Little Elkhorn Creek. The Survey maps it on the Jenkins West quadrangle. 1,902 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,539 feet above sea level.

Jenkins within Letcher County

On record in Jenkins

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 2 records

Surveyed buildings and structures 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Jenkins fell from 2,203 to 1,902 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
20102,203
20201,902-301 (-14%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 18 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.

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.

Jenkins Central Power Plant, North side of U.S. Highway 23, south of Little Elkhorn Creek, Jenkins, Letcher County, KY
Jenkins Central Power Plant, North side of U.S. Highway 23, south of Little Elkhorn Creek, Jenkins, Letcher County, KY
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress

Fires near this place

204 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 204 fires within 5 miles of Jenkins between 1996 and 2020, burning about 9,069 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 45 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 burning84
Missing data/not specified/undetermined45
Arson/incendiarism45
Recreation and ceremony23
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Smoking1
Natural1

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
9 September 2007Debris and open burning65 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
8 September 2007Debris and open burning40 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
7 September 2007Debris and open burning10 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
29 September 2019Arson/incendiarism5.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryJOE'S BR #2
29 September 2019Recreation and ceremony6.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryDUSTY RD.
28 September 2019Arson/incendiarism4.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryJOE'S BR.
27 September 2007Recreation and ceremony132 acresGeorge Washington & Jefferson National ForestsTUCKER GAP
26 September 1999Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreGeorge Washington & Jefferson National ForestsLAUREL FORK

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Letcher 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 Jenkins: 2 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Jenkins MineStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Number 1 MineStone, Crushed/BrokenPast ProducerSedimentary
Number 1 MineStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Letcher County

Storms near this place

7 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Jenkins in 7 storm reports between 1997 and 2023: 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 flood, 1 flash flood, 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
February 2020FloodJenkins$350,000A local radio station reported nearly 3 dozen roads impacted by flood waters across Letcher County, including several locations in Whitesburg and Jenkins. Mudslides were also caused by the previous heavy rainfall. Elkhorn Dam was seen with water rushing over it into the streets downtown due to the heavy rain.||Emergency Management also reported numerous roads impacted by flood waters. The most substantial of these being on Orchard Road near the community of Ice, west of Whitesburg. High water in the North Fork of the Kentucky River caused a pier of a bridge to be ripped up and destroyed.
May 2023Thunderstorm WindEast Jenkins-County highway department reported a tree blown down onto KY-805 between 1 and 2 miles from the Pike County Line.
May 2019Thunderstorm WindEast Jenkins-A tree was blown down and onto Kentucky Highway 805 northeast of Jenkins, blocking the road.
December 2008FloodJenkins-There were 6 to 8 inches of standing water over portions of Highway 80 east and west in the vicinity of Jenkins.
July 2002Flash FloodJenkins-Several county and city roads were closed due to flash flooding.
July 2005HailJenkins-no account filed
January 1997Thunderstorm WindJenkins-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Letcher 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
Gaskill1.3 miles19
Dunham1.4 miles18
East Jenkins1.7 miles19
Payne Gap2.0 miles18
Burdine2.0 miles19
Potters Fork2.3 miles18
Haymond3.0 miles18
McRoberts3.2 miles18

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 JenkinsAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q993555The 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 495200. 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.