Local events in Dunkirk
Nothing is posted for Dunkirk itself yet; here is what is on within 10 miles. All local events in Dunkirk
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Checked October 20; the events page is refreshed daily.
How Dunkirk began
Dunkirk was platted in 1852 in Blanchard Township, northeastern Hardin County, when the railroad reached that point; the first cabin there was raised the year before by Renatus Gum, just south of the tracks. It was named for Dunkirk, New York, and got a post office in 1854. The village grew into a small rail and milling town with churches of half a dozen denominations, peaked at 1,311 residents in 1880, and has declined gradually since to 774 by the 2020 census.
Settled 1851, platted 1852, by Renatus Gum (first cabin, 1851); platted 1852 with the arrival of the railroad.
Where the name comes from
Named after Dunkirk, New York, a common practice for Ohio railroad towns founded by settlers or investors with ties to New York State.
Before the town
No source specific to Dunkirk village or Blanchard Township names a Wyandot, Shawnee, or other village, camp, or trail on this ground; the 1883 county history's Blanchard Township chapter, which covers the village's founding in detail, makes no mention of Native people. County-wide, the Wyandot and Shawnee held this part of northwestern Ohio until the War of 1812 ended Anglo-Indian resistance, and the last Indian village in the county was abandoned by 1817.
Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Shawnee.
Timeline
- — David H. Edgar becomes the first permanent settler of Blanchard Township, entering eighty acres in Section 13 and, that winter, teaching the first school in the north part of Hardin County.
- — Renatus Gum builds the first cabin at the future site of Dunkirk, a hewed-log structure just south of where the railroad would run, and opens the village's first store.
- — Dunkirk is platted as the railroad is extended to the site.
- — A post office is established at Dunkirk.
- — Dunkirk records its peak population, 1,311.
- — James Fleming and James Rush erect a sawmill on Section 19 doing, in the county historian's words, 'a large business.'
- — Census population is 774.
Stories
A cabin ahead of the railroad
Before Dunkirk existed as a platted town, Renatus Gum put up a cabin of hewed logs on the spot in 1851 and opened a small store there, a year ahead of the railroad crews. When the line was finally built through in 1852, the site was surveyed and platted around his cabin and store, and the settlement took the name Dunkirk after the New York port city. A post office followed in 1854. David H. Edgar, the township's first settler back in 1830, later served two terms as the new village's mayor -- a bridge between the log-cabin pioneer generation and the railroad town that grew up around it.
A crowded church row for a small town
By the early 1880s Dunkirk supported congregations of Methodist Episcopal, United Brethren, German Baptist, Wesleyan Methodist, Catholic, Disciples of Christ, Christian, and Seventh Day Adventist believers -- eight distinct denominations in a village of a few hundred people, a sign of how thoroughly the railroad-era settlers of northern Hardin County came from different regions and traditions and each built their own meeting house rather than share one.
Photographs
Photo: Columbus Metropolitan Library, via Ohio Digital Network / Digital Public Library of America, no known copyright restrictions · Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Columbus Metropolitan Library, via Ohio Digital Network / Digital Public Library of America, no known copyright restrictions · Wikimedia Commons
Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · ohiogenealogyexpress.com · hardincountyohio.gov · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org
Water
Groundwater wells (2 wells) The water here
- Dunkirk Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
Hospitals, fire stations and more
Inside Dunkirk's boundary: 1 fire or EMS station and 1 library. Press a pin or a name for its whole record and its source.
Fire and EMS stations (1)
-
Northern Hardin County Fire District Station 4Dunkirk
- Address
- 201 North Main Street, Dunkirk, OH 45836
- Coordinates
- 40.78946, -83.64371
USGS National Map structures (source) ↗ Street map and directions ↗
Source: USGS National Map structures (most Ohio records last updated 2019 to 2022), checked against the Columbus and Cleveland station lists. The department that answers a call is set by jurisdiction and mutual aid, not by distance.
Public libraries (1)
-
Hardin Northern Public LibraryCentral library · Dunkirk
- Address
- 153 N. Main St., Dunkirk, OH 45836
- What it is
- Central library
- Library system
- Hardin Northern Public Library
- Open
- 2,132 hours a year, 52 weeks
- Building
- 2,995 sq ft
- System's visits, FY2024
- 10,348
- System's loans, FY2024
- 9,336
- People the system serves
- 2,729
- Phone
- (419) 759-3558
IMLS Public Libraries Survey (source) ↗ Street map and directions ↗
Source: IMLS Public Libraries Survey FY2024 (outlets and their systems). Any Ohio resident can get a free card at any Ohio public library.
Its ZIP codes
Each ZIP code that touches Dunkirk, with the share of its residents who live here and the same headline figures as the ZIP page.
| ZIP | Share | Water | Radon | Home value | Schools | Flood |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 45836 Dunkirk | 58% | Groundwater wells (2 wells) | Too few radon tests | Median year built 1979 | Hardin Northern Local · 4 stars overall | 0.8% of residents in the 1% floodplain |
Local government
Who holds office in Dunkirk, how its elections and ballot issues came out, and the state auditor's record.
Money issues on the ballot since 2019: 0 of 1 passed.
Ballot issues
| Date | Issue | For | Against | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-11-05 | Issue: 1-Blanchard Township including the Village of Dunkirk 1.5 mill (1.5 mills) | 112 | 134 | Failed (45.53% for) |
Elections for office
| Date | Office | Candidates and votes |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-11-02 | Council | John Kerns 58, 29.59%; Dan Marshman 64, 32.65%; Leslie McCleese 58, 29.59%; Write-In: Trina Crowe 16, 8.16% |
| 2021-11-02 | Board of Public Affairs | Pamela Halsey 78, 100.0% |
| 2021-11-02 | Board of Public Affairs | Jaide L. McBride 79, 100.0% |
| 2019-11-05 | Mayor | Teresa Cramer 91, 61.07%; Pam Ruhlen 58, 38.93% |
| 2019-11-05 | Council | Dorothy Baum 110, 49.55%; Linda L. Gibson 112, 50.45% |
| 2019-11-05 | Board of Public Affairs | Write-In: Steve Drake 11, 100.0% |
Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.
Auditor of State record
- No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
- Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-09-10
The county
Hardin County: 10 ZIP codes, 23 cities, villages and townships, 31,735 people.
Nearby places
Rain and snow
How much has actually fallen on Dunkirk, day by day, from 1893 to now. Daily totals, not averages.
- rain, last 30 days
- 0.95 in
- 2026-09-30 to 2026-10-29
- rain so far in 2026
- 36.2 in
- 3.6 in above normal for the date
- snow so far in 2026
- 13.1 in
- a normal year brings 26.1 in
- a normal year
- 38.1 in
- average of 30 years, 1991-2020
| Month | Rain (in) | Snow (in) | Days counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 2026 | 0.95 | — | 29 |
| September 2026 | 5.91 | — | 30 |
| August 2026 | 5.67 | — | 31 |
| July 2026 | 2.85 | — | 31 |
| June 2026 | 4.57 | — | 30 |
| May 2026 | 4.65 | — | 31 |
| April 2026 | 5.82 | — | 30 |
| March 2026 | 4.21 | 0.3 | 31 |
| February 2026 | 0.47 | 3.7 | 28 |
| January 2026 | 1.12 | 9.1 | 31 |
| December 2025 | 1.78 | 7.0 | 31 |
| November 2025 | 1.32 | 2.5 | 30 |
| Wettest year | 2011 — 55.5 in |
|---|---|
| Driest year | 1934 — 21.1 in |
| Snowiest year | 1895 — 69.1 in |
| Wettest day on record | 21 August 2007 — 4.76 in |
| Heaviest snowfall in a day | 19 March 1896 — 9.48 in |
| Deepest snow on the ground | 27 January 1978 — 18.37 in |
Estimated, not measured. No rain gauge has ever stood inside Dunkirk, so every figure here is worked out from the gauges around it - the nearest ones weighted most. Treat them as close estimates rather than readings.
48,879 days of records, 1893-01-01 to 2026-10-29. Source: NOAA NCEI GHCN-Daily, 3,240 gauges in and around Ohio. A day is "gauged" when a gauge standing inside the boundary reported it, and the value is the mean of those gauges. Otherwise it is interpolated by inverse distance from every gauge reporting within 50 miles. Nothing is carried forward, back-filled or smoothed. Against NOAA nClimDiv county monthly precipitation over 136,848 complete county-months (checked 2026-10-31): correlation 0.9515, median absolute difference 0.217 in a month. Built 2026-10-31 from the Cracked Buckeye precipitation archive. Snow is the softer number — snowfall is measured by hand with a ruler, no agency publishes a gridded county snowfall series, and blowing snow defeats every observer.
Environmental permits and filings
What Ohio EPA has on file for Dunkirk: permits, inspections, violations, cleanups and the state loans behind sewer and water work. Every line links to the agency's own document.
- facilities and sites on file
- 3
- those placed on the map inside Dunkirk
| Program | Facilities and sites |
|---|---|
| State water loans | 2 |
| Voluntary cleanup | 1 |
| Date | Facility or site | What |
|---|---|---|
| DUNKIRK MASONIC TEMPLE | Voluntary cleanup technical help | |
| DUNKIRK VILLAGE PWS | State water loans | |
| DUNKIRK MASONIC TEMPLE | Voluntary cleanup technical help | |
| DUNKIRK VILLAGE PWS | State water loans | |
| DUNKIRK MASONIC TEMPLE | Voluntary cleanup technical help | |
| DUNKIRK VILLAGE PWS | State water loans | |
| DUNKIRK VILLAGE PWS | State water loans | |
| DUNKIRK VILLAGE PWS | State water loans | |
| DUNKIRK VILLAGE PWS | State water loans | |
| DUNKIRK VILLAGE PWS | State water loans |
Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.
Quick answers
What county is Dunkirk, Ohio in?
Dunkirk is a village in Hardin County, Ohio, with 774 residents.
When was Dunkirk, Ohio founded?
Dunkirk was settled 1851; laid out 1852. Founders on record: Renatus Gum (first cabin, 1851); platted 1852 with the arrival of the railroad. Source
How did Dunkirk, Ohio get its name?
Named after Dunkirk, New York, a common practice for Ohio railroad towns founded by settlers or investors with ties to New York State. Source
What ZIP code is Dunkirk, Ohio?
Most of Dunkirk is in ZIP code 45836.
Where does Dunkirk, Ohio get its water?
The main water source for Dunkirk (Dunkirk Village): Groundwater wells (2 wells).
Cite this page
Cite this page as:
Cracked Buckeye, "Dunkirk, Hardin County", https://crackedbuckeye.com/place/dunkirk/, built 2026-10-31, accessed [date].
How to cite · Report a correction · Built 2026-10-31
