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

Boxboro, Massachusetts

43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Boxborough town. It lies in ZIP code area 01719. The Survey maps it on the Hudson quadrangle.

Boxboro within Middlesex County

Then and now

1887 to 1997

The same ground, surveyed 110 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Boxboro, surveyed 1997
Topographic sheet of Boxboro, surveyed 1887

Compare 1887 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

43 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

55 since 2013

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 55 fires within 5 miles of Boxboro between 2013 and 2020, burning about 32 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
Debris and open burning31
Missing data/not specified/undetermined8
Recreation and ceremony5
Smoking4
Railroad operations and maintenance4
Equipment and vehicle use3

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
20 September 2015Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
1 September 2017Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
30 August 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 August 2017Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
13 August 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSTOW
5 July 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 July 2015Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 July 2017Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 553 shown

Museums hold 553 specimens collected within 10 miles of Boxboro between 1898 and 1975: 329 Animalia, 170 Plantae, 53 Fungi, 1 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Gibson, A. F. Newton 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 Boletus griseus, not of this specimenBoletus griseus Frost1898H. Webster
A photograph of the species Riparia riparia, not of this specimenRiparia riparia riparia (Linnaeus, 1758)1898not recordedBerlin
A photograph of the species Salix eriocephala, not of this specimenSalix eriocephala Michx.1898E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Viola brittoniana, not of this specimenViola brittoniana Pollard1898Henry A. Purdie
A photograph of the species Aythya marila, not of this specimenAythya marila nearctica Stejneger, 18851899Schiøler, Eiler Theodor LehnMassachusetts
A photograph of the species Chrysosplenium americanum, not of this specimenChrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook.1899E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Marsilea quadrifolia, not of this specimenMarsilea quadrifolia L.1899not recorded
A photograph of the species Cephalanthus occidentalis, not of this specimenCephalanthus occidentalis L.1900M. RodmanConcord.
A photograph of the species Crataegus coccinea, not of this specimenCrataegus coccinea L.1900not recorded
A photograph of the species Nuphar advena, not of this specimenNuphar advena (Aiton) Aiton1900M. RodmanConcord.
A photograph of the species Salix humilis, not of this specimenSalix humilis var. microphylla (Andersson) Fernald1900M. RodmanConcord.
Botryobasidium vagum (Berk. & M.A.Curtis) D.P.Rogers1930O. C. BoydConcord

All 553 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Boxboro: 6 past producers, 3 producers, 1 occurrence. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Kyanite. 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
Oak Hill Andalusite OccurrenceKyaniteOccurrenceMetamorphic
Boxborough PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
D. B. Raymond Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Melone PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
San Vel Contracting CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
San Vel Pit & PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Stow PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Stow Sand and Gravel IncSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Wallace FletcherSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Willow PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Middlesex 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
Boxboro Station2.0 miles43
West Acton3.0 miles43
Littleton3.3 miles41
New Town (historical)3.7 miles43
Stow3.9 miles43
Centre Village (historical)4.1 miles43
Kelly Corner4.1 miles43
Pingryville4.2 miles41

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 611196. 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.