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

Browns Corner, Massachusetts

43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Hudson town. It lies in ZIP code area 01749. It stands on Potash Hill. The Survey maps it on the Hudson quadrangle.

Browns Corner 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 Browns Corner, surveyed 1997
Topographic sheet of Browns Corner, 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.

In the 1908 county history

144,944 words on this township

The county history of 1908 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for the smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The chapter on Hudson Town covers the township.

Read the chapter on Hudson Town - 144,944 words.

Fires nearby

147 since 2004

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 147 fires within 5 miles of Browns Corner between 2004 and 2020, burning about 74 acres in total. None started naturally. 10 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.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning68
Missing data/not specified/undetermined30
Recreation and ceremony22
Arson/incendiarism10
Smoking9
Misuse of fire by a minor4
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Equipment and vehicle use2

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
7 September 2016Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMARLBORO
7 September 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
28 September 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 September 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
20 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
20 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
16 September 2020Arson/incendiarismunder 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 432 shown

Museums hold 432 specimens collected within 10 miles of Browns Corner between 1898 and 1973: 318 Animalia, 105 Plantae, 9 Fungi. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. Gibson, Ahles, H.E., B. G. Schubert, C.E. Wood Jr. 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 Riparia riparia, not of this specimenRiparia riparia riparia (Linnaeus, 1758)1898not recordedBerlin
A photograph of the species Viola brittoniana, not of this specimenViola brittoniana Pollard1898Henry A. Purdie
A photograph of the species Chrysosplenium americanum, not of this specimenChrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook.1899E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Crataegus intricata, not of this specimenCrataegus intricata Lange1899not recorded
A photograph of the species Oryzopsis asperifolia, not of this specimenOryzopsis asperifolia Michx.1899J M Greenman
A photograph of the species Crataegus coccinea, not of this specimenCrataegus coccinea L.1900not recorded
A photograph of the species Fissidens hallianus, not of this specimenFissidens hallianus (Sull. & Lesq.) Mitt.1900not recordedShrewsbury
A photograph of the species Cistothorus stellaris, not of this specimenCistothorus stellaris (J.F.Naumann, 1823)1930Collector(s): James Lee PetersHarvard
A photograph of the species Colaptes auratus, not of this specimenColaptes auratus luteus Bangs, 18981930Collector(s): James Lee PetersHarvard
A photograph of the species Dioryctria abietivorella, not of this specimenDioryctria abietivorella (Grote, 1878)1930not recordedSudbury
A photograph of the species Formica integra, not of this specimenFormica integra Nylander, 18561930W. S. CreightonSouth Sudbury
A photograph of the species Lanius ludovicianus, not of this specimenLanius ludovicianus migrans W.Palmer, 18981930Collector(s): James Lee PetersHarvard

All 432 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 20 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 20 workings within 5 miles of Browns Corner: 16 past producers, 3 producers, 1 unknown. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Dimension, 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
Berlin Stone Co QuarryStone, DimensionProducer
Gneiss QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Bates Sand and Gravel Co.Sand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Berin PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Berlin PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Berlin Town PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Bolton PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
C and M EnterprisesSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Casaceli TruckingSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Casaceli Trucking 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
Hudson1.6 miles43
Robin Hill2.7 miles42
Gleasondale3.6 miles43
Gleasondale Station3.8 miles43
Marlborough4.3 miles42
Stow5.3 miles43
Marlborough Junction5.5 miles42
Lower Village6.2 miles43

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 611200. 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.