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

Dunkirk, Ohio

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1905 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Blanchard Township. It lies in ZIP code area 45836. The Survey maps it on the Dunkirk quadrangle. 774 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 945 feet above sea level.

Dunkirk within Hardin County

Population over time

2 figures

Dunkirk fell from 875 to 774 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. 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	875
2020	774	-101 (-12%)

Then and now

1905 to 1986

The same ground, surveyed 81 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Dunkirk, surveyed 1986

Topographic sheet of Dunkirk, surveyed 1905

Topographic sheets covering this place

12 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

22,247 words on this township

The History of Hardin County, Ohio, published 1883 names this settlement in its chapter on Blanchard Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Here, in the dense forest, Mr. Edgar passed through all the trying scenes and hardships of pioneer life; cleared up his land, erected good buildings and obtained, by his labor and industry, a good farm with good improvements. He has filled most of the important offices of his township, having served as Trustee many years, as Treasurer fourteen years, and as a Justice of the Peace twenty-five years; and to him, perhaps more than any one person, the community owes a debt of gratitude for the noble pioneer work he has performed, and the aid he has given in the organization of the civil and religious institutions of the township. His wife died, June 11, 1867, aged fifty-four years. They raised a family of seven children, all grown to maturity, and are engaged in the active spheres of life. After the death of his wife,_ he retired from the active scenes of life, and has since resided with his children. After the incorporation of the town of Dunkirk, Mr. Edgar served as its Mayor two years. He is now in his eighty-third year, and is still able to walk about town and among his children with the aid Of his crutches, and seems to enjoy life well, is very cheerful and happy, and delights in thinking of and relating the incidents of his early life - of their hardships and their peculiar habits and modes of living.

Passage source: The History of Hardin County, Ohio, published 1883.

Renatus Gum was born in the State of Delaware, September 18, 1817, and with his father and family came to Knox County, Ohio, near Danville. In 1838, they removed to Washington Township, this county, where they settled north of Hog Creek Marsh. Mr. Gum erected the first cabin in Dunkirk, which was of hewed logs, about 1851, just south of the railroad. He also opened the first store in this village. He is still a resident of the town.

Passage source: The History of Hardin County, Ohio, published 1883.

Joseph B. Smith came here from Clinton County, Ohio, in 1838, and settled in Section 7, near where the grist mill now stands in Dunkirk. He died here in 1852-53. Mr. Smith was one among Jackson Township's best citizens; prompt in all his dealings, enterprising and giving his aid and assistance to all improvements and the general good of the community. He married Elizabeth Fleming, by whom he had the following children; Nancy, John, James and Elizabeth. His wife died and he married again, and by his second wife had three children. He subsequently moved away.

Passage source: The History of Hardin County, Ohio, published 1883.

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 Blanchard Township - it names this place 88 more 88 times.

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 159 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 159 specimens collected within 10 miles of Dunkirk between 1900 and 1973: 109 Animalia, 31 Plantae, 18 Fungi, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, Bartholomew E., Bartholomew, Elam 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
Ustilago tritici (Bjerk.) Rostr.	1923	W.G. Stover	Kenton
Mycosphaerella dearnessii M.E.Barr	1931	Curtis May	State Forest at Steece
Procambarus blandingii (Harlan, 1830)	1939	J. Pelton	Pond near Kenton
Botrychium dissectum Spreng.	1900	Medsger, O.P.	near Ada
Carex lupulina Muhl. ex Willd.	1900	Medsger, O.P.	near Ada
Carpinus caroliniana subsp. virginiana (Marshall) Furlow	1900	Medsger, O.P.	near Ada
Cephalanthus occidentalis L.	1900	Medsger, O.P.	near Ada
Crataegus mollis (Torr. & A.Gray) Scheele	1900	Medsger, O.P.	near Ada
Cyperus strigosus L.	1900	Medsger, O.P.	Ada
Mimulus alatus Aiton	1900	Medsger, O.P.	near Ada
Penthorum sedoides L.	1900	Medsger, O.P.	near Ada
Quercus macrocarpa Michx.	1900	Plurdeger, O.	near Ada

All 159 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Dunkirk: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Limestone, General. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Hardin Quarry	Limestone, General	Producer

Every working recorded in Hardin County

Storms near this place

9 since 2007

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Dunkirk in 9 storm reports between 2007 and 2017: 4 hail, 2 flood, 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. 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
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Dunkirk	$20,000	A portion of a barn sustained heavy structural damage. An antenna was blown over along County Road 14.
July 2017	Flash Flood	Dunkirk	$5,000	Numerous vehicles were stranded in high water on US Route 68.
August 2007	Flood	Dunkirk	$5,000	Several county roads remained flooded and closed across the northern part of the county.
July 2013	Flood	Dunkirk	-	High water was reported on Route 68 due to heavy rainfall.
May 2011	Tornado (EF0)	Dunkirk	-	A tornado briefly touched down in a field. No damage occurred with the tornado.
June 2011	Hail	Dunkirk	-	no account filed
May 2010	Hail	Dunkirk	-	no account filed
May 2010	Hail	Dunkirk	-	no account filed
August 2009	Hail	Dunkirk	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Hardin 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
Dola	2.7 miles	12
Bridgeport	3.7 miles	12
Blocktown (historical)	3.9 miles	11
Blanchard	3.9 miles	11
Walnut Grove	5.0 miles	12
McVitty	5.9 miles	12
Patterson	6.3 miles	12
Grant	6.7 miles	12

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 Dunkirk	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1092171	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 1039880. 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.

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.

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.