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

Belchertown, Massachusetts

32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Belchertown town. It lies in ZIP code area 01007. The Survey maps it on the Belchertown quadrangle. 3,129 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 607 feet above sea level.

Belchertown within Hampshire County

Population over time

3 figures

Belchertown grew from 2,626 to 3,129 between 2000 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Year	People	Change
2000	2,626
2010	2,899	+273 (+10%)
2020	3,129	+230 (+8%)

Then and now

1887 to 1985

The same ground, surveyed 98 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Belchertown, surveyed 1985

Topographic sheet of Belchertown, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

32 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

3,564 words on this township

Geology of Old Hampshire County, Massachusetts : Comprising Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden Counties, published 1898 names this settlement in its chapter on Belchertown Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

This is situated about 150 rods southeast of the east end of the Holyoke main sheet of trap and 2,100 feet N. 47° E. of the house of H. Moody, on the Bay road in Belchertown. It is just south of the source of a brook and within the edge of the woods, rising in a small knoll. On the north edge the contact with the sandstone is well seen, and the baking of the latter is unusually severe. The alteration has hardly begun to decrease in the width exposed - above 10 feet. The coarse red sandstone is baked into a hard, light-gray graywacke, its mica and feldspar grains having been so affected by the heat that they have been removed by later infiltration, leaving pores coated with rust. Still nearer the contact the sandstone contains many white compact masses, which are in part hollow tubes and seem to be bones of a reptile of about the same size as that found in the sandstone at Springfield. The rock is here rendered hard and impervious, and this has favored the preservation of the bones. The specimens contain lime phosphate.

Passage source: Geology of Old Hampshire County, Massachusetts : Comprising Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden Counties, published 1898.

The second of the series of old craters or volcanic throats is exposed in a row of low knolls in the field opposite the house of J. A. Barrett, where the Bay road has just crossed the mountain toward Belchertown village and near the western line of the same township. The exposure is only about 15 rods long by 3 rods wide, with strike N. 60° E., and near at hand on all sides are abundant outcrops of conglomerate, which proves it to be an isolated deposit of limited extent. It agrees in all essentials with the rock of the newer intrusive dikes.

Passage source: Geology of Old Hampshire County, Massachusetts : Comprising Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden Counties, published 1898.

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 Belchertown Town.

Photographs

8 photographs, 2019

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.

Among the exhibited autos at a small antique-car show on the green in [Belchertown], Massachusetts
Highsmith, Carol M, 2019. Library of Congress

This colorful 1949 Willys Jeepster, exhibited at a small antique-car show on the green in [Belchertown], Massachusetts, is one of several small cars used by the Melha Shriners, a funloving Masonic group that delights crowds in area parades
Highsmith, Carol M, 2019. Library of Congress

As this exhibit at a small antique-car show on the green in [Belchertown], Massachusetts demonstrates, hanging dice were a popular decoration in hot rods and convertibles in the 1950s and 60s
Highsmith, Carol M, 2019. Library of Congress

The 1887 Clapp Memorial Library, a public library in [Belchertown], Massachusetts
Highsmith, Carol M, 2019. Library of Congress

Fires near this place

25 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 25 fires within 5 miles of Belchertown between 2015 and 2020, burning about 29 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 1 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
Equipment and vehicle use	13
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5
Debris and open burning	3
Railroad operations and maintenance	1
Arson/incendiarism	1
Natural	1
Recreation and ceremony	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
24 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
5 July 2018	Railroad operations and maintenance	5.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 July 2016	Equipment and vehicle use	5.3 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
27 June 2015	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
7 May 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
6 May 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 May 2015	Equipment and vehicle use	5.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 May 2015	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hampshire County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 4,455 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 4,455 specimens collected within 10 miles of Belchertown between 1781 and 1975: 1,638 Plantae, 1,474 Fungi, 1,146 Animalia, 123 Chromista, 64 Protozoa, 9 Unrecorded, 1 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. Albee, A. Allen, A. B. Seymour 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
Septoria petroselini var. apii Briosi & Cavara, 1891	1895	R. E. Smith	Hothouse, Mass. Agr. College, Amherst; 42.368447 -72.519109
Actias luna Linnaeus, 1758	1896	not recorded
Plathemis lydia (Drury, 1773)	1896	not recorded
Carex argyrantha Tuck. ex Dewey	1781	H. G. Jesup	Amherst in Hampshire Co., and Leverett in Franklin Co., Massachusetts. [Inferred counties from precise loc.]
Carex foenea Willd.	1781	H. G. Jesup	And Leverett
Ustilago nuda (C.N.Jensen) Kellerm. & Swingle	1810	J.E. Humphrey
Ranunculus ambigens S.Watson	1831	S. Shurtleff
Dactylis glomerata L.	1839	S J Ewer
Solidago arguta Aiton	1841	Collector(s): Henry Holmes Babcock, Henry Griswold Jesup	Amherst
Phlebiella vaga (Fr.) P.Karst.	1845	Illegible collector name
Elodea nuttallii (Planch.) H.St.John	1847	H. G. Jesup
Biatora sanguineoatra (Wulfen) Tuck.	1848	Tuckerman Edward

All 4,455 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Belchertown: 2 past producers. None of them 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	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Belchertown Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
	Belchertown Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Hampshire County

Storms near this place

42 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Belchertown in 42 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 24 thunderstorm wind, 13 hail, 3 lightning, 1 heavy rain. 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
May 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$25,000	Many trees and wires on Route 202 were downed by thunderstorm winds.
May 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$25,000	Trees and wires along Route 9 on the Ware/Belchertown line were downed by thunderstorm winds.
May 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$20,000	Trees on Route 9 were downed by thunderstorm winds.
March 2008	Flood	Belchertown	$20,000	In Belchertown, at least two basements were flooded. One and a half feet of water flooded basements on Dewey Street in Williamsburg. The Mill River overflowed its banks flooding lowlands near the edge of Meadow Street in Northampton. Basements flooded in Huntington along Route 20.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$15,000	Several trees were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2008	Lightning	Belchertown	$15,000	A house was struck by lightning and caught fire.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$10,000	Trees and wires on Route 9, Old Belchertown Road, and Webster Road were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$5,000	In Belchertown, a large tree and a large branch were down on wires on George Hannum Street. A tree was down on Bay Road. A large tree was down on wires on Hamilton Street. A tree was down on Warren Wright Road.
August 2019	Lightning	Belchertown	$5,000	In Belchertown, a tree that was struck by lightning fell down onto a mobile home on Chauncey Walker Street.
September 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$5,000	A tree was downed onto Route 9 by thunderstorm winds.
October 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$5,000	A tree and wires were downed by thunderstorm winds at the intersection of Gulf Road and North Street.
June 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$5,000	no account filed
November 1997	Lightning	Belchertown	$5,000	no account filed
November 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$2,600	In Belchertown, a tree and wires were down on Turkey Hill Road. Also, a large tree was down on wires on Franklin Street.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$2,300	In Belchertown, a large tree was down, blocking Route 21 near the Ludlow line, per police. Also, a large tree and power lines were down on North Washington Street, per the fire department. Reports relayed by amateur radio.
July 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$1,500	There were several trees down in Belchertown near Turkey Hill Rd, Chauncey Walker St, Summit St, and Shaw Rd.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$1,500	In Belchertown, trees were reported down on Rt 9.
July 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$1,000	In Belchertown, multiple wires were down on Pelham Rd near Federal St.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$1,000	In Belchertown, two moderate sized trees that were multi trunk snapped near the base.
July 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$800	In Belchertown, a tree and wires were down on Howard St.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$300	In Belchertown, wires were reported down.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$300	In Belchertown, a tree was down across Ware Rd (Rt 9) at Sabin St.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	$300	In Belchertown, a tree was down on Springfield Rd.
August 2024	Hail	Belchertown	-	In Belchertown, quarter sized hail fell.
August 2020	Hail	Belchertown	-	In Belchertown, dime sized hail was reported.
August 2019	Hail	Belchertown	-	Dime size hail was reported in Belchertown.
August 2019	Hail	Belchertown	-	In Belchertown, hail ranging from 1.00 to 1.25 inches in diameter fell between 214 PM and 218 PM EDT (114 PM and 118 PM EST).
May 2017	Hail	Belchertown	-	At 630 PM EST, dime size hail was reported in Belchertown.
June 2016	Hail	Belchertown	-	Nickel size hail fell on Old Sawmill Road in Belchertown.
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	-	Trees downed - one of which took down a telephone pole.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	-	Trees and wires down.
June 1995	Hail	Belchertown	-	Thunderstorms moving eastward through western and central Massachusetts during the late afternoon produced over one inch in some places. Heavy rain was reported from parts of Franklin and Worcester Counties. Pea-size hail was reported from Holden and Athol in Worcester County. More thunderstorms, some severe, moved through much of the same area during the evening and produced gusty winds, hail, and torrential rain. Trees were reported blown down in Warwick and golf ball-size hail fell in Belchertown. There were numerous reports of pea-size hail in Hampden and Hampshire Counties as well as a few reports of dime-size hail. Torrential rain amounted to 3.31 inches in Worthington in a two and one-half hour period ending at 2315 EST, resulting in flash flooding. A driveway was washed out and several partial street washouts were reported. Street flooding was reported in Franklin and Hampshire Counties, including the towns of Plainfield and Deerfield. The automated weather station at Orange recorded 0.41 inches of rain in 25 minutes. As the storms moved to the east, street flooding was reported in parts of Worcester County in the late evening, including Westboro.
July 2013	Hail	Belchertown	-	no account filed
August 2011	Hail	Belchertown	-	no account filed
August 2011	Hail	Belchertown	-	no account filed
August 2011	Hail	Belchertown	-	no account filed
June 2011	Hail	Belchertown	-	no account filed
August 2000	Heavy Rain	Belchertown	-	no account filed
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	-	no account filed
May 1998	Hail	Belchertown	-	no account filed
June 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	-	no account filed
July 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Belchertown	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Hampshire 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
Highland Glen Estates	0.8 miles	32
South Quabbin Villa	1.2 miles	32
Cold Spring	3.2 miles	35
Cooks Corner	3.7 miles	32
West Ware	3.8 miles	32
Dwight	4.4 miles	32
Bardwell	4.4 miles	35
Enfield (historical)	4.5 miles	32

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 Belchertown	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q4882060	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 609121. 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.