Vanceburg, Kentucky
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1919 and the latest in 1991. It stands in the Vanceburg census division. It lies in ZIP code area 41179. It stands on Dry Run. The Survey maps it on the Vanceburg quadrangle. 1,428 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 538 feet above sea level.
Research this city
On record in Vanceburg
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 2 records
- Hammond-Queen Houselisted 2014
- Union Monument in Vanceburglisted 1997
Surveyed buildings and structures 5 records
- Fred Carr House, State Route 8, Vanceburgfederal building survey, 6 photographs
- John Bierly House, State Route 8, Vanceburgfederal building survey, 5 photographs
- Peter Taylor Chapel, State Route 8, Vanceburgfederal building survey, 4 photographs
- Thomas J. Bruce Barn, State Route 8, Vanceburgfederal building survey, 1 photograph
- Thomas J. Bruce House, State Route 8 (south side), Vanceburgfederal building survey, 6 photographs
Population over time
2 figuresVanceburg fell from 1,518 to 1,428 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 | 1,518 | |
| 2020 | 1,428 | -90 (-6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 14 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.
- 1919 USGS Vanceburg quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1949 USGS Vanceburg quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1949 USGS Vanceburg quadrangle1:62500
- 1951 USGS Vanceburg quadrangle1:24000
- 1957 USGS Huntington quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS Huntington quadrangle1:250000
- 1986 USGS Maysville quadrangle1:100000
- 1991 USGS Maysville quadrangle1:100000
Photographs
5 photographs,Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress
Fires near this place
39 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 39 fires within 5 miles of Vanceburg between 1997 and 2020, burning about 2,731 acres in total. None started naturally. 6 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 | 16 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 9 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 6 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 September 2007 | Debris and open burning | 60 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 20 September 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 6 May 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 23 May 2007 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 11 May 2000 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 8 April 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 8.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 6 April 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 20 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | VANCEBURG HILL |
| 6 April 1999 | Debris and open burning | 1,000 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
25 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Vanceburg in 25 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 12 thunderstorm wind, 6 flash flood, 4 hail, 3 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vanceburg | $15,000 | Roof damage occurred to a home in Vanceburg due to thunderstorm winds. Scattered trees were downed around the county as well as some road closures due to the downed trees. |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vanceburg | $6,000 | Several trees were downed. |
| August 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vanceburg | $5,000 | Trees down across State Route 8. |
| August 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vanceburg | $5,000 | Trees downed. |
| June 1997 | Flash Flood | Vanceburg | $5,000 | Roads flooded. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vanceburg | $4,000 | Several trees were downed between Garrison and Black Oak. |
| May 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vanceburg | $4,000 | Several trees downed, some across State Route 8. |
| April 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vanceburg | $2,000 | A couple of trees were downed in the Vanceburg area. |
| March 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vanceburg | $2,000 | A few trees were downed. |
| August 2007 | Flash Flood | Vanceburg | $2,000 | Several roads were flooded along Quicks Run. |
| June 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vanceburg | $2,000 | Large tree limbs were downed. |
| September 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vanceburg | $1,000 | A tree was downed across the eastbound lane of Kentucky Route 8. |
| May 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vanceburg | $1,000 | Two trees were knocked down. |
| December 2007 | Flood | Vanceburg | $1,000 | State Route 8 and Rock Run Road were flooded and impassable. |
| November 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vanceburg | $1,000 | Two trees were downed near the intersection of State Route 10 and Boman Springs Road. |
| June 2021 | Flash Flood | Vanceburg | - | Several inches of water was flowing across portions of State Route 8 between Vanceburg and Garrison. |
| December 2019 | Flood | Vanceburg | - | Kentucky 8 had high water over part of the road. |
| June 2018 | Flood | Vanceburg | - | Water was reported flowing over a road in the Black Oak subdivision. |
| August 2009 | Hail | Vanceburg | - | Nickel to Golf ball size hail fell in the Vanceburg area. |
| September 2004 | Flash Flood | Vanceburg | - | Several roads were flooded and closed. A pickup truck was washed away in floodwaters from Salt Lick Creek. |
| May 2003 | Flash Flood | Vanceburg | - | Quicks Run Road was washed out. |
| January 2002 | Flash Flood | Vanceburg | - | Quicks Run Road was closed by high water. |
| July 2003 | Hail | Vanceburg | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Vanceburg | - | no account filed |
| June 1995 | Hail | Vanceburg | - | no account filed |
Newspapers printed here
6,738 digitised pages5 papers published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 843 issues, 6,738 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
| Newspaper | Published |
|---|---|
| The Vanceburg Courier | 187? to 1??? |
| The Vanceburg Sun | 1889 to 1910 |
| The Sun | 1910 to 1915 |
| The Vanceburg Sun | 1915 to 1917 |
| The Sun | 1917 to 1924 |
What the paper printed
24,759 wordsFront pages of the local paper, read from the Library of Congress scans: 20 issues spread across its run from 1884 to 1924, 24,759 words in total. Each is reproduced on its own page, exactly as the recogniser returned it.
These pages read less well than anything else here, and the number is worth stating: about three words in four come through cleanly, against nine in ten for the building records. An 1896 broadsheet sets eight-point type in seven columns on microfilm, which is the hardest thing in this archive to read by machine. We tested our own recognisers against the Library's and they were not better, so the Library's text is what appears, with the wholly unreadable columns removed. Read it as a guide to what the paper covered, and follow the link to the scan before quoting anything.
| Issue | Paper | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1884-07-09 | The Vanceburg Courier | 3,155 words |
| 1884-10-08 | The Vanceburg Courier | 1,498 words |
| 1884-10-29 | The Vanceburg Courier | 1,698 words |
| 1906-08-30 | The Vanceburg Sun | 1,671 words |
| 1906-10-18 | The Vanceburg Sun | 1,190 words |
| 1906-11-29 | The Vanceburg Sun | 936 words |
| 1910-12-29 | The Vanceburg Sun | 1,735 words |
| 1911-03-02 | The Sun | 490 words |
| 1911-05-25 | The Sun | 542 words |
| 1911-08-31 | The Sun | 753 words |
| 1911-11-23 | The Sun | 553 words |
| 1915-03-18 | The Vanceburg Sun | 929 words |
| 1915-06-03 | The Vanceburg Sun | 869 words |
| 1915-08-26 | The Vanceburg Sun | 1,178 words |
| 1915-11-04 | The Vanceburg Sun | 970 words |
| 1917-03-15 | The Sun | 1,454 words |
| 1917-05-31 | The Sun | 751 words |
| 1917-08-09 | The Sun | 1,179 words |
| 1917-11-08 | The Sun | 203 words |
| 1924-03-20 | The Sun | 3,005 words |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clarksburg | 2.7 miles | 14 | |
| Buena Vista | 3.2 miles | 14 | |
| Kinniconick | 5.5 miles | 14 | |
| Charters | 6.3 miles | 13 | |
| Tannery | 6.7 miles | 14 | |
| Carrs | 6.7 miles | 15 | |
| Queens | 6.8 miles | 15 | |
| Upper Bruce (historical) | 7.1 miles | 14 |
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 Vanceburg | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2366795 | 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 505972. 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.







