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.
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
Jenkins Schoollisted 2011- Dunham High Schoollisted 2025
Surveyed buildings and structures 1 record
- Jenkins Central Power Plant, North side of U.S. Highway 23, south of Little Elkhorn Creek, Jenkinsfederal building survey, 14 photographs
Population over time
2 figuresJenkins 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 2,203 | |
| 2020 | 1,902 | -301 (-14%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 18 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.
- 1890 USGS Whitesburg quadrangle1:125000
- 1892 USGS Whitesburg quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1912 USGS Pound quadrangle1:48000
- 1912 USGS Pound quadrangle1:62500
- 1914 USGS Pound quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1954 USGS Jenkins West quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Jenkins quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Jenkins quadrangle1:250000
- 1977 USGS Pikeville quadrangle1:100000
- 1992 USGS Jenkins West quadrangle1:24000
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
204 since 1996Regional 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 burning | 84 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 45 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 45 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 23 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Natural | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2007 | Debris and open burning | 65 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 8 September 2007 | Debris and open burning | 40 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 7 September 2007 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 29 September 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 5.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | JOE'S BR #2 |
| 29 September 2019 | Recreation and ceremony | 6.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | DUSTY RD. |
| 28 September 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 4.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | JOE'S BR. |
| 27 September 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | 132 acres | George Washington & Jefferson National Forests | TUCKER GAP |
| 26 September 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | George Washington & Jefferson National Forests | LAUREL FORK |
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 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jenkins Mine | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Number 1 Mine | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Number 1 Mine | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
7 since 1997Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2020 | Flood | Jenkins | $350,000 | A 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 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | East Jenkins | - | County highway department reported a tree blown down onto KY-805 between 1 and 2 miles from the Pike County Line. |
| May 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | East Jenkins | - | A tree was blown down and onto Kentucky Highway 805 northeast of Jenkins, blocking the road. |
| December 2008 | Flood | Jenkins | - | There were 6 to 8 inches of standing water over portions of Highway 80 east and west in the vicinity of Jenkins. |
| July 2002 | Flash Flood | Jenkins | - | Several county and city roads were closed due to flash flooding. |
| July 2005 | Hail | Jenkins | - | no account filed |
| January 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Jenkins | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gaskill | 1.3 miles | 19 | |
| Dunham | 1.4 miles | 18 | |
| East Jenkins | 1.7 miles | 19 | |
| Payne Gap | 2.0 miles | 18 | |
| Burdine | 2.0 miles | 19 | |
| Potters Fork | 2.3 miles | 18 | |
| Haymond | 3.0 miles | 18 | |
| McRoberts | 3.2 miles | 18 |
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 Jenkins | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q993555 | 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 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.









