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

Ashby, Massachusetts

44 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Ashby town. It lies in ZIP code area 01431. The Survey maps it on the Ashby quadrangle.

Ashby within Middlesex County

Then and now

1887 to 1988

The same ground, surveyed 101 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Ashby, surveyed 1988

Topographic sheet of Ashby, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

44 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

19 since 2012

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 19 fires within 5 miles of Ashby between 2012 and 2020, burning about 33 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	8
Debris and open burning	5
Fireworks	3
Recreation and ceremony	2
Smoking	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
2 September 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
30 August 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
7 July 2016	Fireworks	3.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 July 2016	Recreation and ceremony	5.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
26 July 2016	Fireworks	3.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
25 July 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
21 July 2016	Fireworks	3.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
7 June 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected nearby

10 of 41 shown

Museums hold 41 specimens collected within 10 miles of Ashby between 1926 and 1970: 29 Animalia, 8 Plantae, 3 Fungi, 1 Unrecorded. 10 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by C. M. Litch, CL & LC Hubbs, E. A. Chapin 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
Anavitrinella pampinaria (Guenée, 1857)	1926	not recorded	Lunenburg
Catocala ilia Cramer	1927	not recorded	Lunenburg
Dasyscyphus calycinus (Schumach.) Fuckel	1927	Howard; Hansbrough J. R.	Lunenburg
Euphagus carolinus carolinus (Statius Muller, 1776)	1927	Edward Fuller	Fitchburg, near
Pyreferra hesperidago Guenée, 1852	1927	not recorded	Lunenburg
unnamed	1928	Hansbrough J. R.	Lunenburg
Catostomus commersonnii commersonnii (Lacepède, 1803)	1928	CL & LC Hubbs	Whitman River, 3 mi SW of W Fitchburg, at crossing of State Road 2; trib of Merrimack R.
Esox niger Lesueur, 1818	1928	CL & LC Hubbs	Whitman River, 3 mi SW of W Fitchburg, at crossing of State Road 2; trib of Merrimack R.
Hemiteles Gravenhorst, 1829	1928	[Not Stated]	Lunenburg
Hemaris thysbe Fabricius, 1775	1930	not recorded	Lunenburg

All 41 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

6 within 5 miles

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

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Maine New Hampshire Granite Corp	Granite	Past Producer	Granite
Mason Quarry	Granite	Producer
R L Robichaud	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Raymond Heywood	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Raymond Heywood Pit and Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Robert L. Robichard Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms nearby

8 since 2001

The National Weather Service names Ashby in 8 storm reports between 2001 and 2022: 7 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning. 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
July 2007	Lightning	Ashby	1 hurt	Woman was struck by lightning in Ashby. Extent of injuries unknown.
September 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Ashby	$25,000	Thunderstorm winds brought down large limbs and wires.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Ashby	$10,000	Trees on Mason Road were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Ashby	$5,000	Trees were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Ashby	$5,000	Trees and wires on Main Street were downed by thunderstorm winds.
September 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Ashby	$3,000	In Ashby trees were down on Flint Rd, West Rd, and Jewett Hill Rd.
June 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Ashby	$3,000	A large tree was downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Ashby	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Middlesex 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
South Village	0.8 miles	44
Rogersville (historical)	3.7 miles	44
West Townsend	4.2 miles	42
Old City	5.6 miles	42
Townsend	6.2 miles	42
South Row	6.9 miles	42
Townsend Harbor	8.1 miles	42
Vose	10.9 miles	44

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 610179. 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.