Do you know of Lost River ???

This page is an orphan - a placeholder until we can discover more about Lost River. When we encounter a name that is new to us, we add it to our Gazetteer with the hope that we'll discover more information in the future. Such is the case with Lost River.

Our sources for Lost River (see Mentions and References below) indicate that it was a community with a post office by the same name. Unfortunately our sources aren't clear about the location of Lost River other than they indicate that Lost River would be found somewhere in Hardy County, West Virginia.

From the Blevins / Hellbock List: The post office opened in 1832 and closed in 1994.

This entry could have originated in error. It might be that a source had a misprint, was simply wrong or we made a transcription error while referencing it. Many of the documents we reference are from the 1800s and the early 1900s, with some easier to read than others.

Part of the difficulty in identifying whether a name is a post office or a community lies with how Post Offices were named. We've prepared an article with our understanding of how post offices were named: Naming of Post Offices.

Communities Also Named Lost River ...

We found nine communities that share the name Lost River.

Within West Virginia, the name Lost River is unique.

Beyond West Virginia, we know of another nine communities that are located throughout in the United States and Canada. Of these nine communities, eight are located in the United States and one is in Canada.

Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Alaska
  - We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Alaska community of Lost River.
- Idaho
  - Butte County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Idaho community of Lost River [Butte County].
  - Custer County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Idaho community of Lost River [Custer County].
- Indiana
  - Martin County
  - We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Indiana community of Lost River [Martin County].
  - Orange County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Indiana community of Lost River [Orange County].
- Kentucky
  - Warren County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Kentucky community of Lost River [Warren County].
- New Hampshire
  - Grafton County
  - Please visit our profile page for the New Hampshire community of Lost River [Grafton County].
- Oregon
  - Klamath County
  - Please visit our profile page for the Oregon community of Lost River [Klamath County].
- Quebec
  - Please visit our profile page for the Quebec community of Lost River.

Miscellaneous References and Mentions for Lost River ...

We've created the following list to keep track of the sources that proved useful in adding to our knowledge about Lost River:

Found in a comprehensive list of Post Offices that was created by Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<2>

Business Atlas and Shippers' Guide (1895)
Published by Rand McNally & Co.

A note taken from the Shipper's Guide for Lost River - Services available: had a Post Office, no Railroad mentioned

List of Post Offices in the United States (1870)
Published by the Government Printing Office

Rand McNally Map of West Virginia (1911)
Published by Rand McNally & Co.

The FIPS database contains an entry for Lost River.

Referenced FIPS Records ...

FIPS Code: 54/48772 (Place Name: Lost River)

County: Hardy (FIPS State/County: 54/031)

Class: U8

Identifies a populated place (in this case, Lost River) located wholly or substantially outside the boundaries of an incorporated place or CDP (Census Designated Place) but whose name has not been verified as authoritative by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

More Orphans in Hardy County ...

Can you help?

As we explained above, when we encounter a name that might be a community or a post office we add it to our Gazetteer. If we have little information to go with the name, we call them Orphans. Below are Orphans that we believe to be located in Hardy County.

Asbury Church	Howard's Lick

Flats	Rockoak
	Russet
Holly Hill Church

Footnotes ...

<1>

If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Lost River could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.

<2>

A copy of their list with background information can be found at:

https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/