Payne Gap, 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 Buck Branch. The Survey maps it on the Jenkins West quadrangle. 347 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,762 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresPayne Gap grew from 329 to 347 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 | 329 | |
| 2020 | 347 | +18 (+5%) |
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
Fires near this place
191 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 191 fires within 5 miles of Payne Gap between 1995 and 2020, burning about 8,764 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 41 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 | 76 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 43 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 41 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 24 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 23 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Payne Gap: 2 past producers. None of them 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number 1 Mine | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Number 1 Mine | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
1 since 2018Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Payne Gap in 1 storm report in 2018: 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2018 | Hail | Payne Gap | - | A citizen reported penny sized hail near Payne Gap via social media. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jenkins | 2.0 miles | 18 | |
| Potters Fork | 2.0 miles | 18 | |
| Haymond | 2.3 miles | 18 | |
| Dunham | 2.5 miles | 18 | |
| Cromona | 2.9 miles | 18 | |
| Tolliver Town | 3.1 miles | 18 | |
| Gaskill | 3.3 miles | 19 | |
| Neon Junction | 3.3 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 Payne Gap | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q6067703 | 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 500292. 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.









