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Taft, Kentucky

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1891 and the latest in 1979. It stands in the Sturgeon census division. It lies in ZIP code area 41314. It lies near Pole Cat Hollow. The Survey maps it on the Oneida quadrangle. It stands 715 feet above sea level.

Taft within Owsley County

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 13 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

206 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 206 fires within 5 miles of Taft between 1992 and 2020, burning about 6,717 acres in total. None started naturally. 54 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 burning114
Arson/incendiarism54
Missing data/not specified/undetermined29
Recreation and ceremony7
Other causes1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
28 September 2019Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryBISHOPS BEND II
24 September 2019Arson/incendiarism54 acresKentucky Division of ForestryBISHOPS BEND
21 September 2019Arson/incendiarism8.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryUPPER WOLF CREEK
21 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined20 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
8 August 2007Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
7 July 2010Debris and open burning2.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryINDIAN CREEK
12 June 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
13 May 2007Debris and open burning18 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Owsley County

Storms near this place

1 since 2025

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Taft in 1 storm report in 2025: 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
May 2025HailTaft-Nickle sized hail was reported in the Sextons Creek area of Owsley County.

Every storm recorded in Owsley 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
Conkling1.4 miles14
Shephard Neighborhood (historical)2.4 miles13
Blake3.3 miles14
Sebastian3.5 miles13
Major3.7 miles14
Southfork3.9 miles14
Indian Creek Neighborhood (historical)3.9 miles12
Ricetown3.9 miles12

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 TaftAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q7675017The 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 515848. 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.