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

Babson Park, Massachusetts

46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Wellesley town. It lies in ZIP code area 02481. It stands on North Hill. The Survey maps it on the Natick quadrangle.

Babson Park within Norfolk County

Then and now

1886 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 103 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Babson Park, surveyed 1989

Topographic sheet of Babson Park, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

46 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

104 since 2003

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 104 fires within 5 miles of Babson Park between 2003 and 2020, burning about 376 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
Recreation and ceremony	58
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	31
Debris and open burning	8
Smoking	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
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
9 September 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
6 September 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	NEEDHAM
3 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	NEEDHAM
23 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	WELLESLEY
21 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	NEEDHAM
14 September 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	NEEDHAM
1 September 2018	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	NEEDHAM

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Norfolk County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 14,245 shown

Museums hold 14,245 specimens collected within 10 miles of Babson Park between 1805 and 1975: 5,941 Animalia, 3,997 Plantae, 3,869 Fungi, 192 Protozoa, 168 Chromista, 46 Unrecorded, 32 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, ? ex Herb. W.G. Farlow, A C Gibson 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
Araiospora pulchra Thaxt.	1900	R. Thaxter	Stony Brook
Hypoprepia fucosa Hübner, 1831	1900	not recorded	Sherborn
Lysimachia × producta (A.Gray) Fernald	1900	A. P. Chute
Margaritifera margaritifera (Linnaeus, 1758)	1805	Bryant, O.	Wash Brook, So. Sudbury, Mass.
Corydalis Vent.	1815	Boott, F.M.B.	Worcester turnpike, 6 miles from Boston.
Corylus L.	1815	not recorded	Cambridge Port, 2 miles from Boston.
Hepatica Mill.	1815	Boott, F.M.B.	Sweet Auburn.
Nuphar Sm.	1815	Boott, J.W.	Worcester Turnpike 6 miles from Boston.
Populus L.	1815	not recorded	Cambridgeport, 1 mile from Boston.
Salix L.	1815	not recorded	Cambridge, 3 1/2 miles from Boston.
Sassafras J.Presl	1815	Boott, F.M.B.	Worcester Turnpike, 6 miles from Boston.
Thalictrum L.	1815	not recorded	Worcester Turnpike.

All 14,245 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

9 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Babson Park: 7 past producers, 1 producer, 1 plant. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Tantalum, Niobium (Columbium). 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
Nrc Inc--Newton, Ma.	Tantalum, Niobium (Columbium)	Plant
Walpole Quarry	Stone	Past Producer
Burton Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Greendale Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Hi-Way Pit and Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Town of Natick	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Town of Needham	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Town of Wellesley	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Town of Wellesley	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Norfolk County

Storms nearby

6 since 2011

The National Weather Service names Babson Park in 6 storm reports between 2011 and 2023: 4 flood, 2 thunderstorm wind. 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
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Babson Park	$30,000	In Wellesley, trees were down and into a house on Aberdeen Road. Also, a tree was down into a house on Bobolink Road.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Babson Park	$500	In Wellesley, a tree was down on Burke Lane at McLean Street.
August 2023	Flood	Babson Park	-	In Wellesley, Great Plain Ave was flooded in both directions.
July 2019	Flood	Babson Park	-	Two feet of water was reported in the three left lanes of I-95 S in Wellesley.
January 2018	Flood	Babson Park	-	At 1125 PM EST, Cedar Street in Wellesley was reported flooded and impassable near the intersection with Barton Road.
August 2011	Flood	Babson Park	-	After receiving two to three inches of rain with Tropical Storm Irene, the Route 9 ramp onto Route 28 was impassable due to flooding in Wellesley.

Every storm recorded in Norfolk 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
Wellesley Hills	1.2 miles	46
Grantville	1.2 miles	46
Needham Heights	1.4 miles	46
Wellesley Farms	1.5 miles	46
Wellesley	1.8 miles	46
Needham	1.8 miles	46
Needham Junction	2.0 miles	46
Charles River Station	2.5 miles	46

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.

Wikidata item Q135683795

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 611894. 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.