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Polly, Kentucky

17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1890 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Whitesburg census division. It lies in ZIP code area 41858. It lies near Cane Hollow. The Survey maps it on the Mayking quadrangle.

Polly within Letcher County

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 17 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

268 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 268 fires within 5 miles of Polly between 1997 and 2020, burning about 7,067 acres in total. None started naturally. 43 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 burning138
Missing data/not specified/undetermined63
Arson/incendiarism43
Recreation and ceremony19
Smoking2
Equipment and vehicle use2
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
9 September 2010Recreation and ceremony9.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryLOVES BRANCH
9 September 2007Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
29 September 2017Arson/incendiarism22 acresKentucky Division of ForestryRHODES BRANCH
25 September 2007Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
19 September 2007Missing data/not specified/undetermined10 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
23 August 2008Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
19 August 2007Equipment and vehicle use8.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
4 July 2014Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryCOMET DRIVE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Letcher County

Storms near this place

3 since 2021

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Polly in 3 storm reports between 2021 and 2025: 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 flood. 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
September 2021Thunderstorm WindPolly$500The public reported several trees down near the community of Polly due to strong thunderstorm wind gusts that moved through.
May 2025FloodPolly-The Letcher County Emergency Manager reported that Camp Branch was out of its banks, causing several inches of water to be flowing over Hwy-931.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindPolly-WXKQ relayed a social media report showing a large tree down on the Camp Branch side of Thorton (Thorton Road) in the vicinity of Tim Hall Timber Trucking.

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
Camp Branch (historical)0.9 miles17
Lucastown1.6 miles17
Thornton Gap1.8 miles17
Colson2.2 miles17
Tillie2.4 miles17
Democrat2.6 miles17
Little Colly (historical)2.7 miles17
Smoot Creek (historical)2.9 miles17

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 508845. 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.