Murray City, Ohio
15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1911 and the latest in 2002. It stands in Ward Township. It lies in ZIP code area 43144. It lies in Spencer Hollow. The Survey maps it on the New Straitsville quadrangle. 341 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 709 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresMurray City fell from 449 to 341 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 | 449 | |
| 2020 | 341 | -108 (-24%) |
Then and now
1911 to 2002The same ground, surveyed 91 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1911 against another survey:
Topographic sheets covering this place
15 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.
- 1911 USGS New Lexington quadrangle1:62500
- 1911 USGS New Lexington quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS Columbus quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Columbus quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS New Straitsville quadrangle1:24000
- 1961 USGS New Straitsville quadrangle1:24000
- 1961 USGS New Straitsville quadrangle1:24000
- 1961 USGS New Straitsville quadrangle1:24000
- 1961 USGS New Straitsville quadrangle1:24000
- 1961 USGS New Straitsville quadrangle1:24000
- 1962 USGS Columbus quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Columbus quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Columbus quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Lancaster quadrangle1:100000
- 2002 USGS New Straitsville quadrangle1:24000
Photographs
1 photograph,Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.
Unattributed, . Library of Congress
Fires nearby
42 since 1994The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 42 fires within 5 miles of Murray City between 1994 and 2020, burning about 96 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 | 12 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 12 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 5 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 5 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2002 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Ohio State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 3 September 2017 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Wayne National Forest | 180 |
| 26 September 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Wayne National Forest | SNAKE HOLLOW |
| 19 September 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Wayne National Forest | ARCHERS FORK FIRE |
| 20 August 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Wayne National Forest | LOOP |
| 9 July 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Ohio Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 13 June 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Wayne National Forest | MONDAY CREEK HELIPAD |
| 7 April 2013 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 54 acres | Wayne National Forest | BURTON |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Specimens collected nearby
10 of 41 shownMuseums hold 41 specimens collected within 10 miles of Murray City between 1916 and 1973: 31 Animalia, 4 Plantae, 4 Protozoa, 2 Fungi. 10 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by Cooke, W. B.; Cooke, V. G., DAVID M SEVER, Davis, H.A.; Davis, T. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Bombus impatiens Cresson, 1863 | 1916 | not recorded | |
![]() | Desmognathus fuscus (Rafinesque, 1820) | 1929 | Hicks, L. E. (Lawrence E.) & Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) | near Buchtel, Athens Co., Ohio |
![]() | Plethodon cinereus (Green, 1818) | 1929 | Hicks, L. E. (Lawrence E.) & Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) | near Buchtel, Athens Co., Ohio |
![]() | Rana clamitans Latreille, 1801 | 1929 | Hicks, L. E. (Lawrence E.) & Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) | New Straitsville, Perry Co., Ohio |
![]() | Ambystoma opacum (Gravenhorst, 1807) | 1935 | Goslin, R. M. (Robert M.) | Ward Twp., Hocking Co., Ohio |
![]() | Asplenium montanum Willd. | 1935 | Wood, R. | Conkle's Hollow State Park |
![]() | Sweltsa lateralis (Banks, 1911) | 1936 | W.C. Stehr | |
![]() | Rana sylvatica LeConte, 1825 | 1948 | H WALTERS AND M FITZMAURICE | 4 MI E N E OF LOGAN |
| Ranidae | 1948 | M FITZMAURICE | 4 MI E N E OF LOGAN | |
| Polygonum tenue Michx. | 1949 | Davis, H.A.; Davis, T. | In cinders along RR at Nelsonville |
All 41 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Storms nearby
8 since 1996The National Weather Service names Murray City in 8 storm reports between 1996 and 2018: 4 thunderstorm wind, 2 flood, 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Murray City | $20,000 | Numerous trees and power lines were downed. |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Murray City | $5,000 | Trees and power lines knocked down. |
| May 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Murray City | $3,000 | A few trees were downed in Murray City. |
| August 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Murray City | $1,000 | Six trees were down on State Route 78 near Murray City. |
| December 2018 | Flood | Murray City | - | Hocking County ODOT reported water over several roads in the Monday Creek area of eastern Hocking County. Roads remained open as flooding was minimal. |
| March 2017 | Flood | Murray City | - | All access roads into Murray City were closed due to high water. |
| March 2017 | Flash Flood | Murray City | - | High water was flowing across several roadways. A few homes were surrounded by water. |
| July 1996 | Hail | Murray City | - | no account filed |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Town | 0.8 miles | 15 | |
| Jobs | 1.1 miles | 15 | |
| Consol (historical) | 1.4 miles | 15 | |
| New Pittsburg | 1.7 miles | 15 | |
| Orbiston | 1.8 miles | 21 | |
| Coalgate | 2.1 miles | 15 | |
| Blatchford | 2.3 miles | 15 | |
| Monday | 2.8 miles | 21 |
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 Murray City | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1983478 | 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 1076486. 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.






















