Fair Play, South Carolina
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1991. It stands in the Oakway census division. It lies in ZIP code area 29643. The Survey maps it on the Fair Play quadrangle. 704 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 815 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresFair Play grew from 687 to 704 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, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. 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 | 687 | |
| 2020 | 704 | +17 (+2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 17 printed 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.
- 1888 USGS Pickens quadrangle1:125000
- 1894 USGS Pickens quadrangle1:125000, 6 printings
- 1954 USGS Greenville quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Fair Play quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Greenville quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Greenville quadrangle1:100000
- 1991 USGS Greenville quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
134 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 134 fires within 5 miles of Fair Play between 1992 and 2020, burning about 306 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 4 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 | 72 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 32 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 10 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 4 |
| Natural | 4 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 4 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Fireworks | 2 |
| Other causes | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 September 1998 | Debris and open burning | 1.5 acres | South Carolina Forestry Commission | not named |
| 5 September 2007 | Natural | 1.0 acres | South Carolina Forestry Commission | not named |
| 26 September 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8.0 acres | South Carolina Forestry Commission | not named |
| 26 September 2016 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | South Carolina Forestry Commission | not named |
| 16 September 2010 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2011-HART-004 |
| 12 September 2002 | Debris and open burning | 3.4 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2003-HART-008 |
| 1 September 1997 | Debris and open burning | 1.1 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 9 August 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | South Carolina Forestry Commission | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Fair Play: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Vermiculite. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Vermiculite #1 Pit | Vermiculite | Past Producer | Metamorphosed Igneous Intrusion |
Storms near this place
28 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Fair Play in 28 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 13 hail, 12 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fair Play | $10,000 | no account filed |
| April 2010 | Tornado (EF0) | Fair Play | $5,000 | A short tornado track was surveyed in the Fair Play community. The tornado touched down along highway 59 between Cleveland Creek Rd and Doctors Rd. Part of the roof was blown off a manufactured home at this location, and numerous trees were snapped off or uprooted. The tornado continued in a northeast direction toward the Pine Grove Rd area, where damage to trees continued near the intersection of Grant Rd. The tornado appeared to dissipate in this area. |
| March 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fair Play | $5,000 | Winds estimated at 80 mph blew several tractor trailer trucks off of I-85 near the Georgia border. |
| January 1995 | Tornado (F1) | Fair Play | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fair Play | - | Numerous reports of blown down trees and power lines were received from the public, spotters, and media throughout Oconee County. The ASOS at the Oconee County Regional Airport measured a wind gust of 56 kts, or 64 mph. |
| August 2020 | Hail | Fair Play | - | Amateur radio and public reported penny to nickel size hail near Fair Play. |
| April 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fair Play | - | Amateur radio operator reported docks loosened on Lake Hartwell and multiple trees blown down in extreme southern Oconee County, including the Fair Play area. |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fair Play | - | Public reported a few trees blown down in the Fair Play area. |
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fair Play | - | County comms reported multiple trees blown down near Fair Play. |
| June 2017 | Hail | Fair Play | - | Public reported pea to penny size hail in the Fair Play area. |
| April 2015 | Hail | Fair Play | - | Spotter reported quarter size hail. |
| April 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fair Play | - | Spotter reported multiple trees and power lines blown down in the Fair Play area. |
| April 2012 | Hail | Fair Play | - | Quarter size hail was reported near Fair Play. |
| August 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fair Play | - | Multiple trees and power lines were blown down in and around Fair Play, including along Dairy Farm Rd, West Pine Grove Rd, River Bend Rd and Shore Dr. |
| March 2011 | Hail | Fair Play | - | Hail covered the road. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fair Play | - | Numerous trees were blown down in and around Fair Play. |
| April 2009 | Hail | Fair Play | - | Hail reported about 1 mile north of exit 1 on I-85. |
| February 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fair Play | - | Trees down in the Fair Play area, including near the intersection of I-85 and highway 11. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fair Play | - | Part of a metal roof was torn off an outbuilding and blown 200 feet. Also, siding was torn off a home and a carport window was blown out. A large tree and several large limbs were blown down as well. |
| July 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fair Play | - | One tree down in Westminster and a tree took down a power lines in the Chickasaw Point area. |
| June 2010 | Hail | Fair Play | - | no account filed |
| August 2007 | Hail | Fair Play | - | no account filed |
| March 2003 | Flash Flood | Fair Play | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Fair Play | - | no account filed |
| May 1999 | Hail | Fair Play | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Fair Play | - | no account filed |
| April 1997 | Hail | Fair Play | - | no account filed |
| March 1996 | Hail | Fair Play | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fairplay Shores | 3.2 miles | 18 | |
| Earles Grove | 3.8 miles | 17 | |
| Port Bass | 4.3 miles | 18 | |
| South Union | 4.5 miles | 18 | |
| Cross Roads | 6.0 miles | 17 | |
| Timberlake | 6.5 miles | 17 | |
| Oakway | 6.6 miles | 18 | |
| Snug Harbor | 7.0 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 Fair Play | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q4246483 | 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 1222333. 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.
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.






