Block
Dunbar, Ohio
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1902 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Fairfield Township. It lies in ZIP code area 45724. It stands on Falls Creek. The Survey maps it on the Little Hocking quadrangle.
Then and now
1902 to 1994The same ground, surveyed 92 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
Compare 1902 against another survey:
Topographic sheets covering this place
17 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.
- 1902 USGS Parkersburg quadrangle1:62500
- 1904 USGS Parkersburg quadrangle1:62500
- 1904 USGS Parkersburg quadrangle1:62500
- 1904 USGS Parkersburg quadrangle1:62500
- 1904 USGS Parkersburg quadrangle1:62500
- 1904 USGS Parkersburg quadrangle1:62500
- 1949 USGS Clarksburg quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Clarksburg quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Clarksburg quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Clarksburg quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Little Hocking quadrangle1:24000
- 1961 USGS Little Hocking quadrangle1:24000
- 1961 USGS Little Hocking quadrangle1:24000
- 1961 USGS Little Hocking quadrangle1:24000
- 1981 USGS Parkersburg quadrangle1:100000
- 1988 USGS Clarksburg quadrangle1:250000
- 1994 USGS Little Hocking quadrangle1:24000
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Fairfield township, The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.
Epidemic
In 1820 this locality was visited by some kind of fever called by the settlers the "cold plague," and such were the ravages of the disease that it required all the energies of the able-bodied citizens to care for the afflicted ones. It is stated that over fifty persons were carried off by this awful scourge.
In the county-history sources
7,590 words on this townshipHistory of Washington County, Ohio, published 1881 names this settlement in its chapter on Fairfield Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
The soil is generally of yellow and red clay, with the common sandstone base, which extends, generally, through this part of the State. This soil is abundantly productive of all kinds of fruits, apples of all kinds, pears, etc., and an ample profusion of the smaller fruits, are found in all parts of the township. Peaches are also produced in some seasons, but are not certain of fruition, owing to climatic influences. Wheat, oats, and corn are the chief agricultural productions. Wool growing is carried on quite extensively throughout the township, and fine-wool sheep are now being generally introduced, among which are found the Shermanoes, Merinoes, and some Leicesters. The fleeces from this locality command the highest market price.
Passage source: History of Washington County, Ohio, published 1881.
The timber lands abound mostly in white and red oak, with some hickory, walnut, and poplar. The sandstone, outcroppings of which are found in various localities in the township, is used generally for building purposes, but is quarried only for local use at the present time.
Passage source: History of Washington County, Ohio, published 1881.
Little Hocking river takes its rise in the western part of the township, and, receiving several unimportant tributaries, flows in a southeastern direction until it reaches a point southeast of Dunbar post office, where it turns westward for a short distance, and thence directly south, leaving the township west of the central part of the southern boundary. Other smali branches drain the various parts of the township, flowing both north and south from the great highland divide extending across the township.
Passage source: History of Washington County, Ohio, published 1881.
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 Fairfield Township - it names this place 13 more 13 times.
Fires near this place
2 since 2010Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Dunbar between 2010 and 2016, burning about 1 acres in total. None 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 March 2010 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Ohio Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 28 October 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Ohio Department of Natural Resources | 5906 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Specimens collected near this place
12 of 188 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 188 specimens collected within 10 miles of Dunbar between 1902 and 1975: 152 Animalia, 29 Fungi, 7 Plantae. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. Kinsey, Cavanah, et al., Cavannah, et al. 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.
| Image | Species | Year | Collected by | Where, as recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Petrova houseri Miller, 1959 | 1954 | W. Miller | Veto |
 | Uromyces asclepiadis Cooke | 1902 | W. A. Kellerman | |
| Alternaria solani Sorauer | 1905 | Post A. Lee | Washington Bottom | |
 | Guignardia bidwellii (Ellis) Viala & Ravaz | 1905 | Post A. L. | Washington Bottom |
 | Monochaetia mali (Ellis & Everh.) Sacc. & D.Sacc. | 1905 | Post A. L. | Washington Bottom |
 | Phyllosticta mali var. camensis Traverso | 1905 | Post A. L. | Washington Bottom |
 | Puccinia sorghi Schwein. | 1905 | Johnson T. C. | Washington |
 | Fomes roseus (Alb. & Schwein.) Fr. | 1907 | Hartley Carl P. | Washington |
 | Fomes subroseus (Weir) Overh. | 1907 | Hartley Carl | Washington |
 | Cynips Linnaeus, 1758 | 1928 | A. C. Kinsey | Coolville |
 | Etheostoma nigrum Rafinesque, 1820 | 1930 | Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Foster, R. (Robert) | Wolf Creek tributary, within Wesley township, near Stockport, Wesley township |
 | Lampetra aepyptera (Abbott, 1860) | 1930 | Eggleston, H. K. | South Fork South Branch Wolf Creek, near Deming Rd, ~2.4 miles south of Watertown OH, Barlow township |
All 188 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Storms near this place
1 since 2025Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Dunbar in 1 storm report between 2025 and 2025: 1 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dunbar | $1,500 | A tree was blown down onto power lines along North West Hills Drive in Parkersburg. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qualey | 0.9 miles | 13 | |
| Tick Ridge | 1.4 miles | 17 | |
| Napier | 1.6 miles | 17 | |
| Decaturville | 1.8 miles | 13 | |
| Cutler | 2.6 miles | 13 | |
| Layman | 3.2 miles | 16 | |
| Fillmore | 3.9 miles | 17 | |
| Veto | 3.9 miles | 17 |
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 Dunbar | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q22133350 | 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 1061026. 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.