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

Barrowsville, Massachusetts

33 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1987. It stands in Norton town. It lies in ZIP code area 02766. It stands on Goose Branch. The Survey maps it on the Norton quadrangle.

Barrowsville within Bristol County

Then and now

1885 to 1987

The same ground, surveyed 102 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Barrowsville, surveyed 1987
Topographic sheet of Barrowsville, surveyed 1885

Topographic sheets covering this place

33 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.

In the county-history sources

31,415 words on this township

The county-history sources names this settlement in its chapter on Norton Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Norton Town - it names this place 4 more 4 times.

Fires near this place

36 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 36 fires within 5 miles of Barrowsville between 2015 and 2020, burning about 30 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/undetermined17
Debris and open burning10
Recreation and ceremony3
Smoking2
Fireworks2
Equipment and vehicle use1
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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
16 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
12 September 2017Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlPLAINVILLE
9 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
11 August 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
10 August 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
10 August 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
20 July 2016Fireworks1.2 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
15 July 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.8 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Bristol County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 935 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 935 specimens collected within 10 miles of Barrowsville between 1844 and 1975: 540 Animalia, 325 Plantae, 67 Fungi, 3 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A. A. Eaton, A. C. Birch 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
A photograph of the species Calla palustris, not of this specimenCalla palustris L.1844Thurber, G.
A photograph of the species Chamaecrista fasciculata, not of this specimenChamaecrista fasciculata (Michx.) Greene1846not recorded
A photograph of the species Apocynum cannabinum, not of this specimenApocynum cannabinum L.1855F. C. SeymourRehoboth
A photograph of the species Astur Lacepède, not of this specimenAstur Lacepède, 17991860C. D. LincolnTaunton
A photograph of the species Carex panicea, not of this specimenCarex panicea L.1863J. H. Dean
A photograph of the species Carex L., not of this specimenCarex L.1864J. H. DeanTaunton.
A photograph of the species Carex vulpinoidea, not of this specimenCarex vulpinoidea Michx.1864J. H. Dean
A photograph of the species Hypoxis hirsuta, not of this specimenHypoxis hirsuta (L.) Coville1874not recorded
A photograph of the species Chelidonium majus, not of this specimenChelidonium majus L.1875not recorded
A photograph of the species Lygodium palmatum, not of this specimenLygodium palmatum (Bernh.) Sw.1875not recorded
A photograph of the species Berberis vulgaris, not of this specimenBerberis vulgaris L.1876not recorded
A photograph of the species Empidonax minimus, not of this specimenEmpidonax minimus (W.M.Baird & S.F.Baird, 1843)1877C.P. SnowTaunton, North

All 935 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

5 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Barrowsville: 4 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Taunton PlantStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Allen R. Nelson PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Gary Nelson Excavating CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Pine Street PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Bristol 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
Chartley1.2 miles33
Copper Works1.3 miles33
Norton1.7 miles33
Meadow Brook2.0 miles33
Centre Mills2.2 miles33
Norton Furnace (historical)2.4 miles33
East Norton2.7 miles33
Cranes Station3.1 miles33

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 Q122555262The 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 612413. 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.