Pine Knot, Kentucky
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1890 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the Pine Knot census division. It lies in ZIP code area 42635. It stands on Wolf Pen Creek. The Survey maps it on the Whitley City quadrangle. 1,380 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,421 feet above sea level.
Population over time
3 figuresPine Knot fell from 1,680 to 1,380 between 2000 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 1,680 | |
| 2010 | 1,621 | -59 (-4%) |
| 2020 | 1,380 | -241 (-15%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 16 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 Williamsburg quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1894 USGS Williamsburg quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1952 USGS Whitley City quadrangle1:24000
- 1956 USGS Corbin quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Corbin quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Whitley City quadrangle1:24000
- 1979 USGS Whitley City quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1981 USGS Corbin quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
104 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 104 fires within 5 miles of Pine Knot between 1993 and 2020, burning about 2,704 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 56 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 |
|---|---|
| Arson/incendiarism | 56 |
| Debris and open burning | 28 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 6 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Natural | 1 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2007 | Debris and open burning | 40 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 24 September 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 3.0 acres | Daniel Boone National Forest | PINE KNOT |
| 24 September 1998 | Recreation and ceremony | 2.0 acres | Daniel Boone National Forest | BACKBONE |
| 23 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 20 September 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 6.0 acres | Daniel Boone National Forest | HAYNES |
| 19 September 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 6.0 acres | Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area | BRUSHPILE |
| 12 September 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 6.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 22 August 2008 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 2.0 acres | Daniel Boone National Forest | TRAIN |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
24 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Pine Knot in 24 storm reports between 2000 and 2022: 15 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 3 flash flood, 2 heavy rain. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pine Knot | $250,000 | Straight line wind caused significant damage to the Pine Knot area. During a church service, the roof of a church was torn apart, along with terrible structural damage. The steeple was completely blown off and destroyed. The church was declared a total loss. The picnic shelter next door was completely flattened. Miraculously, nobody sustained injuries, omitting a couple of scrapes and bruises. Several outbuildings were damaged and blown off of foundations. Several trailer homes suffered roof damage and were blown off of their foundations. Numerous large trees in the area were blown down and several motor vehicles sustained damage. |
| August 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pine Knot | $50,000 | Northfork Southern Railroad was closed for approximately 3 hours due to downed trees on the tracks between Century Lane and Roundtop Road. Elsewhere across the county, a tree fell on a house in the Whitley City area and several roads were closed due to downed trees. |
| September 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pine Knot | $10,000 | Six or seven telephone poles were blown down by thunderstorm wind gusts on Highway 92 East between Route 1044 and Poplar Ford Road. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pine Knot | $7,000 | Several trees were blown down in the Pine Knot area around the intersection of Highways 27 and 92. |
| August 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pine Knot | $5,000 | Trees were blown down on Cal Hill Road. |
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pine Knot | $3,000 | Trees were blown down with an estimated wind gust of 40-45 mph. |
| May 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pine Knot | $2,000 | Strong winds brought trees and power lines down. |
| November 2010 | Flash Flood | Pine Knot | $1,000 | A road slide occurred on state highway 1470 east of Pine Knot due to heavy rain. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pine Knot | - | A tree was reported down near the intersection of KY-1651 and Old US-27. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pine Knot | - | A tree was reported down near the Pine Knot Elementary School, near the intersection of KY-2792 and US-27. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pine Knot | - | Numerous trees were blown down throughout the county, including in the community of Pine Knot. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pine Knot | - | Trees were blown down. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pine Knot | - | A garage was destroyed by thunderstorm wind gusts. |
| February 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pine Knot | - | A tree was blown down and across Hwy 1470. |
| May 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pine Knot | - | Tree limbs as big as a person's arm were blown down into a yard in Pine Knot. Power was out across the area. |
| December 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Pine Knot | - | Trees were blown down across both lanes of Mount Pleasant Road in Pine Knot. |
| April 2012 | Flash Flood | Pine Knot | - | Flash flooding closed Perkins Branch Road in Pine Knot and Highway 92 near Wild Bill Stephens Road. |
| May 2009 | Hail | Pine Knot | - | Half dollar size hail and winds estimated at 60 mph occurred in Pine Knot. |
| May 2009 | Heavy Rain | Pine Knot | - | County dispatch reported water flowing onto Hwy 92 in places, but not enough to close the road. |
| May 2009 | Heavy Rain | Pine Knot | - | Several creeks in southeast McCreary county, including Hayes Creek and Osborne Creek, were reported to be rising out of their banks, some running close to the bottom of bridges. |
| January 2002 | Flash Flood | Pine Knot | - | Water was covering and flowing over Kentucky highway 1470. |
| May 2009 | Hail | Pine Knot | - | no account filed |
| May 2009 | Hail | Pine Knot | - | no account filed |
| July 2007 | Hail | Pine Knot | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strunk | 2.0 miles | 16 | |
| Revelo | 2.8 miles | 16 | |
| Gilreath | 2.9 miles | 16 | |
| Hickory Grove | 3.0 miles | 16 | |
| Stearns | 3.9 miles | 16 | |
| Creekmore | 4.5 miles | 16 | |
| Smith Town | 5.1 miles | 9 | |
| Barthell | 5.2 miles | 9 |
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 Pine Knot | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2774180 | 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 514591. 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.







