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Van Lear, Kentucky

17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Paintsville census division. It lies in ZIP code area 41265. It stands on Webb Branch. The Survey maps it on the Paintsville quadrangle. 893 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 643 feet above sea level.

Van Lear within Johnson County

On record in Van Lear

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 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Van Lear fell from 1,857 to 893 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.

YearPeople Change
20101,857
2020893-964 (-52%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

11 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

225 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 225 fires within 5 miles of Van Lear between 1997 and 2020, burning about 6,187 acres in total. None started naturally. 50 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 burning75
Missing data/not specified/undetermined50
Arson/incendiarism50
Recreation and ceremony47
Railroad operations and maintenance3

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 2019Debris and open burning5.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryROUTE 302
28 September 1998Arson/incendiarism4.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
25 September 2008Debris and open burning30 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
24 September 2008Debris and open burning25 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
24 September 2007Debris and open burning40 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
24 September 1999Arson/incendiarism2.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
22 September 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
21 September 2019Arson/incendiarism6.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryBARBER BRANCH III

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Johnson County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Van Lear: 1 past producer, 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Silica, Clay. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
East Point RoadcutClayProspect
Levisa Fork Sandstone PitSilicaPast Producer

Every working recorded in Johnson County

Storms near this place

2 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Van Lear in 2 storm reports between 1998 and 2022: 2 thunderstorm wind. 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
June 2022Thunderstorm WindWest Van Lear$20,000A tree was blown down and onto a home in the West Van Lear community, in addition to large tree limbs being blow down.
June 1998Thunderstorm WindWest Van Lear$3,000Power lines downed.

Every storm recorded in Johnson 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
West Van Lear1.6 miles17
Nero1.7 miles18
Dawkins1.9 miles17
Meally2.0 miles16
Hagerhill2.1 miles17
East Point2.4 miles17
Thelma3.3 miles17
Collista3.6 miles17

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 Van LearAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3605827The 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 505958. 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.