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

South Salem, Ohio

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1917 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Buckskin Township. It lies in ZIP code area 45681. It stands on North Fork Buckskin Creek. The Survey maps it on the South Salem quadrangle. 219 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 919 feet above sea level.

South Salem within Ross County

Population over time

2 figures

South Salem grew from 204 to 219 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	204
2020	219	+15 (+7%)

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 South Salem, surveyed 1986

Topographic sheet of South Salem, surveyed 1917

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.

Fires nearby

8 since 2007

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of South Salem between 2007 and 2020, burning about 58 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3
Debris and open burning	2
Recreation and ceremony	1
Other causes	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	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
30 September 2007	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	Ohio Department of Natural Resources	not named
15 April 2016	Other causes	5.0 acres	Ohio Department of Natural Resources	4949
22 March 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	15 acres	Ohio Department of Natural Resources	not named
10 November 2020	Debris and open burning	3.0 acres	Ohio Department of Natural Resources	15941
10 November 2014	Debris and open burning	4.0 acres	Ohio Department of Natural Resources	not named
10 November 2012	Recreation and ceremony	18 acres	Ohio Department of Natural Resources	not named
28 October 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3.0 acres	Ohio Department of Natural Resources	not named
27 October 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	10 acres	Ohio Department of Natural Resources	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Ross County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 797 shown

Museums hold 797 specimens collected within 10 miles of South Salem between 1898 and 1975: 520 Animalia, 229 Fungi, 40 Plantae, 8 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by 14505, 14519, 14555 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
Rhynchostegium serrulatum (Hedw.) A.Jaeger	1909	Henry S. Jewett	near Sulphur Lick Springs
Taxiphyllum geophilum (Austin) M.Fleisch.	1909	Henry S. Jewett	Sulphur Lick Springs
Lecidea coarctata (Turner) Nyl.	1914	Bruce Fink	Bainbridge
Heterosternuta wickhami (Zaitzev, 1908)	1898	Scott O'Dee
Fungus Adanson ex O.Kuntze, 1898	1908	E. T. Harper & S. A. Harper
Andropogon gerardi Vitman	1910	Hopkins, L.S.	Paint Creek
Asplenium rhizophyllum L.	1910	Hopkins, L.S.	"Caves" Paint Creek
Brachyelytrum erectum (Schreb.) P.Beauv.	1910	Hopkins, L.S.	Paint Creek
Cardamine pensylvanica Muhl. ex Willd.	1910	Hopkins, L.S.	Paint Creek
Cinna arundinacea L.	1910	Hopkins, L.S.	Panel Creek
Cystopteris bulbifera (L.) Bernh.	1910	Hopkins, L.S.	Careo, Paint Creek
Diarrhena americana P.Beauv.	1910	Hopkins, L.S.	Point Creek

All 797 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms nearby

8 since 2004

The National Weather Service names South Salem in 8 storm reports between 2004 and 2021: 3 tornado, 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail. The reports record 1 injury. 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
October 2021	Tornado (EF0)	South Salem	1 hurt, $30,000	The tornado briefly touched down on a residential property, partially removing the roof of a manufactured home. A few outbuildings were also damaged and a large shipping container was blown from its location. A child sustained minor injuries due to flying glass. A few large trees were also downed.
October 2021	Tornado (EF2)	South Salem	$300,000	The tornado initially caused damage to trees east of South Salem Cemetery and within Sunset Park. The highest intensity occurred shortly after touch down with two structures destroyed along Stewart Street. One structure, which was bolted to a concrete foundation, was lofted onto Stewart Street. The other structure had nearly all of the exterior walls collapsed. The roof was lofted and pieces were found littered along the tornado track through the town. Snapped power poles also occurred along Stewart Street. The tornado then moved southeast over Main Street with significant tree and minor structure damage observed. The tornado continued to cause tree damage and minor structure damage along Lower Twin Road before exiting South Salem to the east. The final tree damage observed was along a creek south of Lower Twin Road, where multiple trees were snapped and uprooted.
May 2004	Tornado (F0)	South Salem	$30,000	A tornado moved out of southern Fayette County into extreme western Ross County before lifting. A barn and a windmill were heavily damaged.
April 2007	Hail	South Salem	$5,000	Quarter size hail fell on the Ross-Highland County line.
July 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	South Salem	$3,000	A tree was downed across Lower Twin Road and several other tress were downed across central and southern portions of Ross County.
May 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	South Salem	$3,000	A couple four to five foot diameter trees were knocked down over State Route 41.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	South Salem	$2,000	One tree with a trunk diameter of 4 feet was snapped off. Numerous tree limbs were reported down or broken. These occurrences were due to damaging thunderstorm winds.
May 2004	Hail	South Salem	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Ross 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
Lyndon	1.2 miles	13
New Salem (historical)	2.8 miles	13
Fruitdale	3.0 miles	13
Harper	3.1 miles	13
Thrifton	3.2 miles	13
Thornton (historical)	4.0 miles	12
Humboldt	4.1 miles	13
Lattaville	5.4 miles	11

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 South Salem	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2668520	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 1065354. 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.