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

Blandford, Massachusetts

36 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1998. It stands in Blandford town. It lies in ZIP code area 01008. It stands on Sunset Rock. The Survey maps it on the Blandford quadrangle.

Blandford within Hampden County

Then and now

1887 to 1998

The same ground, surveyed 111 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Blandford, surveyed 1998

Topographic sheet of Blandford, surveyed 1887

Compare 1887 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

36 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.

Photographs

1 photograph,

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.

First Congregational Church of Blandford, North Street, Blandford, Hampden County, MA
Unattributed, . Library of Congress

Fires nearby

8 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of Blandford between 2015 and 2020, burning about 2 acres in total. 1 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	2
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Recreation and ceremony	1
Smoking	1
Natural	1
Debris and open burning	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
11 September 2016	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
29 July 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
27 May 2016	Natural	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
11 May 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
27 April 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
25 April 2016	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
22 April 2018	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
16 March 2016	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hampden County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,991 shown

Museums hold 1,991 specimens collected within 10 miles of Blandford between 1822 and 1975: 1,157 Fungi, 503 Plantae, 282 Animalia, 36 Chromista, 13 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. B. Seymour & A. C. Seymour, A. B. Seymour & Clara E. Cummings 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
Fungi	1890	Seymour, Arthur Bliss	Granville
Gymnosporangium globosum (Farl.) Farl.	1890	Arthur B. Seymour	Granville
Baeomyces roseus Pers.	1895	George T. Moore	Chestnut Hill
Porella platyphylloidea (Schwein.) Lindb.	1822	Emmons	Norwich
Panax quinquefolius L.	1831	Collector unspecified	Blandford
Carex siccata Dewey	1844	Collector unknown
Amphicarpaea bracteata (L.) Fernald	1845	Collector unspecified
Alopecurus geniculatus L.	1850	not recorded
Lactuca hirsuta Muhl. ex Nutt.	1850	Collector unspecified
Carex canescens L.	1852	Collector unknown	Westfield.
Carex pallescens L.	1852	Collector unknown	Westfield
Chelone glabra L.	1891	not recorded

All 1,991 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 16 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 16 workings within 5 miles of Blandford: 7 past producers, 6 producers, 3 occurrences. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Talc-Soapstone, Mica, Feldspar, Silica. 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
Kaolin Quarry	Brick Clay	Producer
Kaolin Quarry	Clay	Past Producer
Pegmatite Quarry	Mica, Feldspar	Producer	Feldspar
Blandford Mica Mine	Mica, Feldspar	Past Producer	Feldspar, Mica
Pegmatite Quarry	Mica, Feldspar	Past Producer
Silica Quarry	Silica	Occurrence
Silica Quarry	Silica	Past Producer
Blandford Mica Mine	Mica	Producer	Mica
Blandford Mica Mine	Mica	Occurrence
Blandford Mica Mine	Mica	Occurrence

Every working recorded in Hampden County

Storms nearby

32 since 1997

The National Weather Service names Blandford in 32 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 16 thunderstorm wind, 15 hail, 1 lightning. 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 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	North Blandford	$50,000	In Blandford, several large limbs were blown down on North Blandford Road and a tree was downed onto wires on Russell Stage Road. A tree and wires were downed on Woronoco Road in Russell. In Huntington, several trees were downed on Bromley Road, a tree was downed across Route 66, and wires were downed on Searle Road. In West Springfield, a tree was downed on Route 20 not far from the Westfield line.
June 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Blandford	$20,000	no account filed
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Blandford	$8,000	Trees and wires on North Blandford Road were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 1998	Lightning	Blandford	$8,000	no account filed
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Blandford	$5,000	Four to five inch diameter tree limbs were downed by thunderstorm winds in multiple locations across Blandford.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Blandford	$5,000	no account filed
August 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Blandford	$5,000	no account filed
September 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	North Blandford	$3,000	In Blandford, there were trees down near town hall and a roof damaged at the Blandford Fairgrounds.
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Blandford	$2,000	no account filed
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	North Blandford	$1,000	In Blandford, trees were down on Blair Road. Report relayed by amateur radio.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	North Blandford	$1,000	In Blandford, a large tree was down on Gibbs Road at Route 23.
August 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Blandford	$1,000	At 4:27 PM EST, thunderstorm winds brought a tree down in Blandford on state route 23 west of South Road.
August 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Blandford	$1,000	Several six to eight inch diameter branches were downed onto Chester Road by thunderstorm winds.
August 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Blandford	$500	In Blandford, a tree was reported down on Route 23.
May 2024	Hail	Blandford	-	In Blandford, quarter sized hail was reported.
August 2019	Hail	Blandford	-	Quarter size hail was reported in Blandford.
June 2017	Hail	Blandford	-	At 526 PM EST, nickel size hail was reported in Blandford.
July 2015	Hail	Blandford	-	Quarter size hail fell on North Blandford Road.
July 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Blandford	-	A large tree on North Blandford Road was downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2009	Hail	Blandford	-	Penny size hail fell in a swath from southwest of Huntington to north of Huntington.
August 2008	Hail	Blandford	-	Pea to penny size hail fell to a depth of three inches.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Blandford	-	Large tree limbs down near route 23.
May 2010	Hail	Blandford	-	no account filed
May 2008	Hail	Blandford	-	no account filed
July 2008	Hail	Blandford	-	no account filed
August 2008	Hail	Blandford	-	no account filed
September 2008	Hail	Blandford	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Blandford	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Blandford	-	no account filed
June 2001	Hail	Blandford	-	no account filed
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Blandford	-	no account filed
July 1997	Hail	Blandford	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Hampden 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
Woronoco Heights	3.1 miles	37
North Blandford	3.5 miles	36
Camp Woronoak	3.6 miles	37
Russell	3.7 miles	37
Baird Four Corners	4.1 miles	39
South Quarter	4.4 miles	37
Crescent Mills	4.5 miles	37
Woronoco	5.3 miles	37

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 608279. 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.