Decorative drawing: a small American settlement seen from a low hill. Not a photograph of this place.

Buena Vista, Ohio

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1919 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Nile Township. It lies in ZIP code area 45684. It stands on Lower Twin Creek. The Survey maps it on the Buena Vista quadrangle.

Buena Vista within Scioto County

Then and now

1919 to 1991

The same ground, surveyed 72 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Buena Vista, surveyed 1991

Topographic sheet of Buena Vista, surveyed 1919

Topographic sheets covering this place

13 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.

In the county-history sources

7,646 words on this township

A History of Scioto County, Ohio,, published 1903 names this settlement in its chapter on Nile Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The first school taught in the township was taught about 1814. Now there are nine districts in the township, outside of Buena Vista. They were laid out in 1840. No. 1, is known as the Friendship school and has a two room frame building. Two teachers are employed, salaries of $40 and $35 per month. No. 2, is the Pond Run School. The salary of the teacher is $37.50 per- month. No. 3, is known as the Leatherwood School. The salary of the teacher is $37 .50 per month. No. 4, is known as the Elm Tree. It has a modern two-story frame building with a beautiful spreading elm standing in front. The salaries of the teachers are $40 and $35 per month.

Passage source: A History of Scioto County, Ohio,, published 1903.

McKendree Chapel, M. E. Church was built in 1884. It is located on the south side of the Portsmouth and Buena Vista turnpike, near McGaw. The church is prosperous and growing. Rev. S. A. McNeilan is pastor. The trustees are: A. F. Givens, William Stockham, Lafayette Jones, Samuel Thatcher and David Metzger. It has 70 members and the Sunday School averages 60. A. F. Givens^ is serving his twenty-seventh year as superintendent.

Passage source: A History of Scioto County, Ohio,, published 1903.

These lands are now described, conveyed and embraced in two tracts (formerly described in twelve tracts) of which 168.75 acres in survey No. 1623 is the first tract and the remainder is the second tract, and contains 576.33 acres. The entire two tracts as one body, front for about one mile along the Ohio river on the north or right bank, beginning at the western line of the village of Buena Vista in Scioto County, Ohio, and extending thence westerly to the village of Rockville in Adams County, Ohio. The steamboat landing for the village of Buena Vista is upon this land and parties using it pay the present proprietor a rental. There is deep and good water along the entire river bank and between that and the foot of the hill.

Passage source: A History of Scioto County, Ohio,, published 1903.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Nile Township - it names this place 8 more 8 times.

Fires near this place

20 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 20 fires within 5 miles of Buena Vista between 1999 and 2018, burning about 981 acres in total. None started naturally. 3 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	10
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3
Arson/incendiarism	3
Recreation and ceremony	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2

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
24 September 2007	Debris and open burning	1.0 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
21 April 2016	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Ohio Department of Natural Resources	4869
18 April 2007	Recreation and ceremony	2.0 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named
12 April 2018	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Ohio Department of Natural Resources	13005
10 April 2017	Arson/incendiarism	390 acres	Ohio Department of Natural Resources	7845
10 April 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	366 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	UNION HILL

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

McGaw

Every fire recorded in Scioto County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 559 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 559 specimens collected within 10 miles of Buena Vista between 1924 and 1975: 464 Animalia, 61 Plantae, 32 Fungi, 2 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. Braun, A.J. Sharp, Bryant, J. and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Athripsodes Billberg, 1820	1942	not recorded
Calypogeia sullivantii Austin	1924	M. A. Taylor	Upper Twin Creek.
Cephalozia bicuspidata (L.) Dumort.	1924	M. A. Taylor	Upper Twin Creek.
Cephaloziella hampeana (Nees) Schiffn. ex Loeske	1924	M. A. Taylor	Upper Twin Creek.
Jungermannia pumila With.	1924	M. A. Taylor	Upper Twin Creek.
Nardia crenuliformis (Austin) Lindb.	1924	M. A. Taylor	Upper Twin Creek.
Hymetta anthisma McAtee, 1919	1927	Walson
Notropis boops Gilbert, 1884	1927	not recorded	Turkey Creek, Nile township, ~4.2 mi NW of Saint Paul, Nile township
Crotalus horridus horridus	1928	Sloan, R. C.	Shawnee State Forest, Scioto Co., Ohio
Eumeces fasciatus (Linnaeus, 1758)	1928	Roth, C. (Conrad)	Shawnee State Forest, Scioto Co., Ohio
Hyla versicolor LeConte, 1825	1928	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Walker, C. F. (Charles F.)	Turkey Run, Scioto Co., Ohio
Opheodrys aestivus Linnaeus, 1766	1928	Sauderson, E. (Earl)	Shawnee State Forest, Scioto Co., Ohio

All 559 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms near this place

9 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Buena Vista in 9 storm reports between 2008 and 2025: 6 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 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
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Buena Vista	$8,000	Several trees were blown down in Buena Vista and Friendship, one of which fell on a home. Two power poles were blown down, and there was also three quarter inch hail.
September 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Buena Vista	$3,000	Several trees were downed on U.S. 52 near Buena Vista.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Buena Vista	$2,000	Several trees were knocked down.
June 2008	Hail	Buena Vista	$2,000	Penny size hail was covering the ground.
May 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Buena Vista	$1,000	A tree was downed across U.S. 52.
July 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Buena Vista	$1,000	A large tree was downed onto US Route 52, completely blocking the road.
July 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Buena Vista	$1,000	US Route 52 was closed at Buena Vista due to a tree that was downed across the road.
February 2021	Flood	Buena Vista	-	U.S. Route 52 East was closed beyond Ellison Lane due to flooding.
July 2014	Hail	Buena Vista	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Scioto 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
McGaw	2.0 miles	13
Kennvale	6.7 miles	13
Pond Run	7.5 miles	13
Pink	8.5 miles	12
Camp Oyo	8.8 miles	13
Friendship	10.0 miles	14
Dennis	11.1 miles	14
Sugar Grove	12.0 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 Buena Vista	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q22033578	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 1060903. 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.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

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.