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Valley Falls, New York

30 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Pittstown town. It lies in ZIP code area 12185. The Survey maps it on the Schaghticoke quadrangle. 510 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 335 feet above sea level.

Valley Falls within Rensselaer County

Then and now

1893 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 96 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Valley Falls, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Valley Falls, surveyed 1893

On record in Valley Falls

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

Population over time

2 figures

Valley Falls grew from 466 to 510 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
2010466
2020510+44 (+9%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

14 surveys from 30 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

174 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 174 fires within 5 miles of Valley Falls between 1997 and 2020, burning about 136 acres in total. 16 started naturally. 27 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined87
Debris and open burning29
Arson/incendiarism27
Natural16
Equipment and vehicle use5
Smoking4
Power generation/transmission/distribution3
Recreation and ceremony1
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Other causes1

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
5 September 2002Other causesunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
4 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New YorkN/A
29 September 2012Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
22 September 2009Arson/incendiarismunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
16 September 2010Arson/incendiarismunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
23 August 2003Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
2 August 2002Naturalunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
16 August 2004Naturalunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Rensselaer County

Mines and quarries near this place

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Valley Falls: 5 past producers, 4 producers. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Limestone, General, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
Burrello PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
East of Tomhannock Limestone QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Melrose Limestone QuarryLimestone, GeneralProducerLimestone
Melrose Limestone QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
North of Melrose Limestone QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Unnamed QuarryLimestone, GeneralProducerLimestone
Unnamed QuarryLimestone, GeneralProducerLimestone
Unnamed QuarryLimestone, GeneralProducerLimestone
West of Tomhannock Limestone QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Rensselaer County

Storms near this place

6 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Valley Falls in 6 storm reports between 2005 and 2020: 4 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 1 flash 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
June 2014Flash FloodValley Falls$10,000Heavy rain led to flash flooding on North Street in Valley Falls. Rapid runoff led to the erosion of the ground beneath a hundred year old, two-apartment house. The home's owner estimated that about 300 cubic yards of land was lost beneath the home in about a five minute period. Although the home's foundation remained intact, a small porch lost all the ground underneath it.
August 2020Thunderstorm WindValley Falls-Several large tree limbs were downed onto a house on Powder Mill Road.
May 2017Thunderstorm WindValley Falls-A tree was reported down due to thunderstorm winds.
September 2013Thunderstorm WindValley Falls-Trees and wires were reported down on Master Street, one mile north of the village of Valley Falls in the town of Schaghticoke, as a result of thunderstorm winds.
July 2011HailValley Falls-Half dollar size hail was reported during a thunderstorm in Valley Falls, just east of Schaghticoke.
July 2005Thunderstorm WindValley Falls-Trees and wires down.

Every storm recorded in Rensselaer 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
Schaghticoke1.2 miles30
Tomhannock2.6 miles28
Johnsonville2.7 miles30
Millertown2.8 miles30
Schaghticoke Hill2.8 miles30
Diamondwood Estates3.4 miles29
Lincolnville4.9 miles28
Melrose5.3 miles28

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 Valley FallsAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1898631The 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 968358. 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.