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

Amesbury, Massachusetts

47 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1987. It stands in Amesbury City. It lies in ZIP code area 01913. It stands on Back River. The Survey maps it on the Newburyport West quadrangle. 12,327 people lived here at the 2000 count. It stands 56 feet above sea level.

Amesbury within Essex County

Then and now

1888 to 1987

The same ground, surveyed 99 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Amesbury, surveyed 1987
Topographic sheet of Amesbury, surveyed 1888

Topographic sheets covering this place

47 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.

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.

Lowell's Boat Shop, 459 Main Street, Amesbury, Essex County, MA
Lowell's Boat Shop, 459 Main Street, Amesbury, Essex County, MA
Unattributed, . Library of Congress

Fires nearby

66 since 1994

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 66 fires within 5 miles of Amesbury between 1994 and 2020, burning about 29 acres in total. None started naturally. 9 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 burning15
Equipment and vehicle use11
Recreation and ceremony9
Arson/incendiarism9
Missing data/not specified/undetermined7
Misuse of fire by a minor5
Smoking5
Power generation/transmission/distribution3
Fireworks2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
17 September 2018Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlAMESBURY
17 September 2018Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlAMESBURY
1 September 2020Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 August 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 August 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSALISBURY
8 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSAILSBURY
5 August 2016Recreation and ceremony2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSAILSBURY
4 July 2016Fireworksunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSAILSBURY

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Essex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,828 shown

Museums hold 1,828 specimens collected within 10 miles of Amesbury between 1800 and 1975: 1,159 Plantae, 524 Animalia, 71 Chromista, 64 Fungi, 5 Protozoa, 3 Unrecorded, 2 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A A Eaton, A Brown, A. A. Eaton 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 SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
Specimen of Hypnum curvifolium Hedw.Hypnum curvifolium Hedw.1900John W. Huntington
Specimen of Plagiotheciella latebricola (Schimp.) M.Fleisch.Plagiotheciella latebricola (Schimp.) M.Fleisch.1900John W. Huntington
A photograph of the species Rhodobryum roseum, not of this specimenRhodobryum roseum (Hedw.) Limpr.1800J. W. HuntingtonAmesbury
A photograph of the species Dichelyma capillaceum, not of this specimenDichelyma capillaceum (Dicks.) Myrin1833J. W. Huntington
A photograph of the species Dumetella carolinensis, not of this specimenDumetella carolinensis (Linnaeus, 1766)1833J.S. AppletonWest Newbury
A photograph of the species Dasya C.Agardh, not of this specimenDasya C.Agardh, 18241842Collector unknownLittle River near Old Town, 6 miles from the sea
A photograph of the species Laminaria saccharina, not of this specimenLaminaria saccharina (L.) J.V.Lamour.1842N. PikePlum Island
A photograph of the species Dasya baillouviana, not of this specimenDasya baillouviana (Gmelin) Mont.1844N. Pikenear Old Town
A photograph of the species Campylium Mitt., not of this specimenCampylium (Sull.) Mitt.1851Marian Ropes Robertsonbetween Boston St. and Devil's Den
A photograph of the species Galium circaezans, not of this specimenGalium circaezans var. hypomalacum Fernald1857R. Mock
A photograph of the species Genista tinctoria, not of this specimenGenista tinctoria L.1857R. Mock
A photograph of the species Kalmia latifolia, not of this specimenKalmia latifolia L.1857R. Mock

All 1,828 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

7 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Amesbury: 6 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Amesbury PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Buzzell PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Maurice Concrete Products CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Ralph BuzzellSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Ralph L BuzzellSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Ralph L Buzzell IncSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Roy PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Essex County

Storms nearby

12 since 1999

The National Weather Service names Amesbury in 12 storm reports between 1999 and 2018: 10 thunderstorm wind, 2 lightning. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2005LightningAmesbury$25,000no account filed
June 2018Thunderstorm WindAmesbury$16,000At 5:54 PM EST, a tree came down on a pickup truck on Monroe Street in Amesbury.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindAmesbury$15,000Trees on Friend Street and on Whitehall Road were downed by thunderstorm winds. One of the trees took down wires as well.
June 2005LightningAmesbury$10,000no account filed
September 2016Thunderstorm WindAmesbury$5,000A tree was downed onto a house on Orchard Street.
September 2014Thunderstorm WindAmesbury$5,000A tree and wires on Powpow Street and Fern Avenue were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2008Thunderstorm WindAmesbury$5,000Trees and wires on Buttonwood Road and Cedar Street were downed by thunderstorm winds.
May 2002Thunderstorm WindAmesbury$4,000no account filed
June 2007Thunderstorm WindAmesbury-Trees and wires down in Amesbury.
July 2007Thunderstorm WindAmesbury-Trees, wires, and power poles downed.
June 2007Thunderstorm WindAmesbury-Many trees down.
July 1999Thunderstorm WindAmesbury-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Essex 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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Salisbury Point1.5 miles47
Curzon Mill2.6 miles47
Salisbury Plains2.6 miles47
Merrimacport3.7 miles47
Salisbury3.9 miles44
Newburyport4.2 miles47
Merrimac4.3 miles47
Rings Island4.4 miles44

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 AmesburyAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q4745899The 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 614180. 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.

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.