Old Forge, New York
24 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1901 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Webb town. It lies in ZIP code area 13420. It stands on Beaver Brook. The Survey maps it on the Old Forge quadrangle. 727 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,857 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1901 to 1989The same ground, surveyed 88 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


On record in Old Forge
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
Goodsell Houselisted 2006
Thendara Historic Districtlisted 2010
Population over time
2 figuresOld Forge fell from 756 to 727 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 | 756 | |
| 2020 | 727 | -29 (-4%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 24 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.
- 1901 USGS Old Forge quadrangle1:62500, 10 printings
- 1950 USGS Utica quadrangle1:250000
- 1954 USGS Old Forge quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS Utica quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Utica quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1964 USGS Utica quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Utica quadrangle1:250000
- 1985 USGS Raquette Lake quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1989 USGS Old Forge quadrangle1:25000
Fires near this place
11 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 11 fires within 5 miles of Old Forge between 2006 and 2020, burning about 12 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None was 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Debris and open burning | 3 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 August 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | not named |
| 4 August 2015 | Natural | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | NA |
| 22 August 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | not named |
| 25 June 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | New York Forest Rangers | ADIRONDACK LEAGUE |
| 25 June 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Fire Department of New York | NA |
| 25 June 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Fire Department of New York | NA |
| 4 May 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.1 acres | Fire Department of New York | N/A |
| 25 May 2012 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
27 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Old Forge in 27 storm reports between 1993 and 2024: 23 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 1 flash flood, 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2002 | Flash Flood | Old Forge | $10,000 | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | $8,000 | no account filed |
| September 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | $5,000 | no account filed |
| September 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | $2,000 | no account filed |
| March 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | $1,000 | Trees and wires were downed, resulting in power outages in the town of Old Forge. |
| July 2024 | Tornado (EF1) | Old Forge | - | A National Weather Service storm survey concluded a tornado touched down in northern Herkimer County. Hi-resolution satellite data showed widespread tree damage consistent with an EF1 tornado beginning east of Little Moose Lake and continuing northeastward to the southwestern corner of Limekiln Lake. Estimated peak winds were 100 mph. The path length was 4.1 miles with a path width of 150 yards. |
| August 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | - | Trees and wires were downed along Route 28 between Old Forge and Eagle Bay. |
| February 2022 | Flood | Old Forge | - | All lanes were blocked along Route 28 from Big Moose Road in Eagle Bay to Hollywood Road near Old Forge due to flooding. |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | - | Law enforcement reported trees and wires down on power and cable lines on Fletcher Road. |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | - | A tree was downed on South Shore Road. |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | - | Trees and wires were downed in the Town of Old Forge. All lanes on Route 28 were blocked between Crosby Road and Adams Street. |
| May 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | - | A tree was downed onto wires on Beechvue Point. |
| May 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | - | A tree was downed by thunderstorm winds. |
| August 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | - | Two trees were reported down in addition to wires. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | - | Trees and wires were down in Old Forge as a result of thunderstorm winds. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | - | A tree was reported down on South Shore Road about 5 miles east of Old Forge as a result of thunderstorm winds. |
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | - | Trees and wires were reported down in Old Forge due to strong thunderstorm winds. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | - | Trees and wires were reported down near Old Forge due to strong thunderstorm winds. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | - | Trees and power lines were reported down near Old Forge due to strong thunderstorm winds. |
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | - | An Emergency Manager reported that trees were blown down in Old Forge. |
| July 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | - | Trees down across Peach tree Road. |
| September 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | - | Hundreds of trees and power poles were blown down. Roads were impassable. Damage is attributable to both severe thunderstorms and non thunderstorm wind. |
| June 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | - | Trees and power lines down. |
| May 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Forge | - | no account filed |
| September 1998 | Hail | Old Forge | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thendara | 1.6 miles | 23 | |
| Mountain Lodge | 2.7 miles | 24 | |
| Minnehaha | 6.0 miles | 23 | |
| Wolf Lake Landing | 7.9 miles | 22 | |
| Big Moose | 8.1 miles | 28 | |
| Eagle Bay | 9.3 miles | 28 | |
| McKeever | 9.4 miles | 22 | |
| Woods Lake | 9.9 miles | 28 |
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 Old Forge | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q7084012 | 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 959281. 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.








