Berkshire, Massachusetts

The same ground, surveyed 112 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1886 1998

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.

• 1886 USGS Greylock quadrangle1:62500
• 1891 USGS Greylock quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Greylock quadrangle1:62500
• 1898 USGS Greylock quadrangle1:62500
• 1898 USGS Greylock quadrangle1:62500
• 1898 USGS Greylock quadrangle1:62500
• 1898 USGS Greylock quadrangle1:62500
• 1898 USGS Greylock quadrangle1:62500
• 1898 USGS Greylock quadrangle1:62500
• 1898 USGS Greylock quadrangle1:62500
• 1898 USGS Greylock quadrangle1:62500
• 1898 USGS Greylock quadrangle1:62500
• 1898 USGS Greylock quadrangle1:62500
• 1900 USGS Taconic quadrangle1:125000
• 1900 USGS Taconic quadrangle1:125000
• 1900 USGS Taconic quadrangle1:125000
• 1900 USGS Taconic quadrangle1:125000
• 1944 USGS Cheshire quadrangle1:24000
• 1944 USGS Cheshire quadrangle1:24000
• 1946 USGS Cheshire quadrangle1:24000
• 1947 USGS Cheshire quadrangle1:31680
• 1947 USGS Cheshire quadrangle1:31680
• 1947 USGS Cheshire quadrangle1:31680
• 1948 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1957 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1959 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1959 USGS Cheshire quadrangle1:24000
• 1959 USGS Cheshire quadrangle1:24000
• 1962 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1973 USGS Cheshire quadrangle1:24000
• 1973 USGS Cheshire quadrangle1:25000
• 1975 USGS Cheshire quadrangle1:25000
• 1986 USGS Albany quadrangle1:100000
• 1988 USGS Cheshire quadrangle1:25000
• 1988 USGS Cheshire quadrangle1:25000
• 1989 USGS Albany quadrangle1:100000
• 1989 USGS Albany quadrangle1:100000
• 1998 USGS Cheshire quadrangle1:25000

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.

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 68 fires within 5 miles of Berkshire between 2008 and 2020, burning about 177 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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.

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

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Lanesborough
• Camp Merrill
• Camp Mohawk
• Camp Stevenson
• Camp Sumner
• Camp Witawentin

Every fire recorded in Berkshire County

Museums hold 955 specimens collected within 10 miles of Berkshire between 1835 and 1975: 469 Plantae, 269 Animalia, 211 Fungi, 6 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A K Harrison, A Schwartz, A. K. Harrison 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	Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
	Bombus ternarius Say, 1837	1898	[Not Stated]	Hinsdale
	Persicaria amphibia (L.) Delarbre	1835	C. A. Shurtleff	Pittsfield
	Coptis trifolia (L.) Salisb.	1855	Smer	Williamstown Map - Mt. Greylock
	Solidago patula Muhl. ex Willd.	1858	Brewer; Chickering
	Carex aestivalis M.A.Curtis ex A.Gray	1865	Boott, M.	Saddle Mountain, Williamstown [Mount Greylock]
	Carex novae-angliae Schwein.	1865	W. Boott	Saddle Ball Mountain
	Homalia jamesii Schimp.	1867	unknown	Waconah Falls State Park
	Homalia trichomanoides (Hedw.) Schimp.	1867	E. C. Howe
	Potentilla fruticosa L.	1868	Redfield, J.H.	Pittsfield
	Carex communis var. communis	1874	J. H. Redfield	Borders of woods, Pittsfield. [Inferred county from precise loc.]
	Archilochus colubris (Linnaeus, 1758)	1897	Hoag, B	Stephentown
	Poa trivialis L.	1898	A. K. Harrison	Lebanon Springs

All 955 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

The federal mineral resources record lists 24 workings within 5 miles of Berkshire: 13 past producers, 7 producers, 2 occurrences, 1 unknown. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Iron, Asbestos, Limestone, General. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Every working recorded in Berkshire County

The National Weather Service names Berkshire in 5 storm reports between 2000 and 2000: 3 flash 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.

Every storm recorded in Berkshire County

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 607312. 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.