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

Lees Creek, Ohio

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1917 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Wayne Township. It lies in ZIP code area 45169. The Survey maps it on the Sabina quadrangle.

Lees Creek within Clinton County

Then and now

1917 to 1986

The same ground, surveyed 69 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Lees Creek, surveyed 1986

Topographic sheet of Lees Creek, surveyed 1917

Topographic sheets covering this place

11 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 1915 county history

1,114 words on this township

The county history of 1915 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for the smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The chapter on Wayne Township covers the township.

Read the chapter on Wayne Township - 1,114 words.

Fires nearby

1 since 2006

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Lees Creek between 2006 and 2006, burning about 0 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
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
2 March 2006	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Ohio Department of Natural Resources	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Memphis

Every fire recorded in Clinton County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 332 shown

Museums hold 332 specimens collected within 10 miles of Lees Creek between 1892 and 1974: 165 Animalia, 145 Fungi, 12 Protozoa, 9 Plantae, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. R. Gaufin, A.R. Gaufin, H.H. Ross, Allen, A. (Avery) 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
Entyloma compositarum Farl.	1894	F. L. Stevens	Highland Falls.
Hemitrichia stipitata (Massee) T.Macbr., 1899	1922	Cooke, William Bridge	Seven Caves (Highlands Nature Sanctuary)
Guepinia spathularia (Schwein.) Fr.	1923	Taylor, C.L.	Wilmington
Desmodium pauciflorum (Nutt.) DC.	1892	J. S. Vanderwort	New Antioch
Gymnosporangium globosum (Farl.) Farl.	1901	Hartley C. P.	Sabina
Pseudosuccinea columella (Say, 1817)	1911	not recorded	Clinton, North America
Claviceps purpurea (Fr.) Tul.	1919	Lewis H. L.	Wilmington
Cladonia fimbriata (L.) Fr.	1923	Taylor, C.J.	Wilmington
Parmelia Acharius, 1803	1924	Taylor, L.	Wilmington
Peltigera praetextata (Flörke ex Sommerf.) Zopf	1924	Taylor, C.L.	Wilmington
Mustela frenata Lichtenstein, 1831	1927	Hazard, F. O.	Reesville, Clinton Co., Ohio, USA
Acris crepitans Baird, 1854	1929	Hazard, F. O.	near Wilmington, Clinton Co., Ohio

All 332 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

1 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Lees Creek: 1 plant. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
	Melvin Quarry & Mill	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Plant

Every working recorded in Clinton County

Storms nearby

4 since 2010

The National Weather Service names Lees Creek in 4 storm reports between 2010 and 2025: 2 tornado, 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 funnel cloud. 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
April 2025	Tornado (EF0)	Lees Creek	$75,000	The tornado developed near Reed Road and State Route 72, where a few power poles were knocked down. Two barns on Rhonemus Road had their roofs removed, and a silo was also destroyed. On Hornbeam Road, one barn was destroyed, and multiple trees were snapped. Some roof and gutter damage was also observed on a single family home. Debris was thrown in multiple directions in the field directly east of Hornbeam Road. Farther east, power poles were downed on State Route 729. Additional debris was noted in a field near Greenfield-Sabina Road. The tornado crossed into Fayette County just east of Greenfield-Sabina Road at 0032EST. The tornado continued to move east-northeast across western Fayette County before ending at 0035EST, along Staunton Jasper Road.
October 2010	Tornado (EF0)	Lees Creek	$70,000	The tornado touched down in Clinton County at 1224 EST and continued into Fayette County at 1224 EST before lifting at 1225 EST. The path width was 200 yards. The tornado traveled for 3.81 miles in Clinton County and then 0.14 miles in Fayette County. The damage was consistent with winds around 85 miles per hour. The tornado touched down just west of State Route 72, about one mile northwest of the intersection with State Route 729. The tornado was observed on the ground from two separate residences near the initial touch down location. Four utility poles were observed to be broken and briefly suspended in the tornado near one of the residences. An occupant of the other residence observed debris circulating immediately east of State Route 72. At one location east of State Route 72, the tornado pulled a large metal door from a barn and destroyed a portion of the metal roof. Fragments of the roof were carried for approximately a quarter of a mile to the northeast. Field debris was also found wedged between the wall boards of the barn. The tornado continued northeast and next crossed Hornbeam Road approximately three-fourths of a mile northwest of the intersection with State Route 729. Damage on the east side of Hornbeam Road included a horse trailer that was picked up and carried about 100 feet. Numerous trees were also snapped on this same property. The tornado then traveled northeast across open and harvested fields until arriving at Greenfield-Sabina Road, approximately three-fourths of a mile northwest of the intersection with Snow Hill Road. Damage on the east side of the road included damage to a metal roof and a wall of a livestock barn. There was also roof and siding damage to two residences nearby. The concentrated damage path appeared to end just past this location in far western Fayette County.
April 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Lees Creek	$3,000	Three power poles were downed on State Route 72, just south of State Route 729.
July 2019	Funnel Cloud	Lees Creek	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Clinton 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
Memphis	2.2 miles	11
Powderlick	4.4 miles	11
Sabina Manor Estates	4.5 miles	11
Reesville	4.5 miles	11
Sabina	4.8 miles	11
Melvin	5.2 miles	11
New Antioch	5.2 miles	11
Snow Hill	6.1 miles	11

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1064979. 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.

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.