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

Chester Center, Massachusetts

36 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Chester town. It lies in ZIP code area 01011. It stands on Cherry Tree Hill. The Survey maps it on the Chester quadrangle.

Chester Center within Hampden County

Then and now

1886 to 1997

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 Chester Center, surveyed 1997
Topographic sheet of Chester Center, surveyed 1886

Compare 1886 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.

Fires nearby

4 since 2018

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Chester Center between 2018 and 2020, burning about 1 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 burning2
Power generation/transmission/distribution2

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
17 June 2018Power generation/transmission/distribution1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 April 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
9 March 2020Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
15 March 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hampden County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 329 shown

Museums hold 329 specimens collected within 10 miles of Chester Center between 1822 and 1975: 228 Animalia, 76 Plantae, 25 Fungi. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. Pealey, A.W. Montgomery; L.M. Massey, Ahles, H.E. 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 Porella platyphylloidea, not of this specimenPorella platyphylloidea (Schwein.) Lindb.1822EmmonsNorwich
A photograph of the species Panax quinquefolius, not of this specimenPanax quinquefolius L.1831Collector unspecifiedBlandford
A photograph of the species Dichanthelium depauperatum, not of this specimenDichanthelium depauperatum (Muhl.) Gould1868Joseph BlakeWesthampton
A photograph of the species Buteo platypterus, not of this specimenButeo platypterus (Vieillot, 1823)1870Crum, Milo Tuttle; Clinton Mellen Jones CollectionRussell
A photograph of the species Poecile atricapillus, not of this specimenPoecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766)1870Clinton Mellen Jones CollectionRussell
A photograph of the species Lygodium palmatum, not of this specimenLygodium palmatum (Bernh.) Sw.1872Miller, E.S.East Hampton
A photograph of the species Eleusine indica, not of this specimenEleusine indica (L.) Gaertn.1874Frederick N. Pease
A photograph of the species Leucobryum glaucum, not of this specimenLeucobryum glaucum (Hedw.) Ångstr.1877H. J. BiddlecomeChester
A photograph of the species Botrychium dissectum, not of this specimenBotrychium dissectum Spreng.1879not recorded
A photograph of the species Dendroica discolor, not of this specimenDendroica discolor discolor (Vieillot, 1809)1891Clarence WatrousChester
Dendroica virens virens (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)1891Henry BennettChester
Leptomorphus magnificus (Johannsen, 1910)1896[Not Stated]Montgomery

All 329 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 36 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 36 workings within 5 miles of Chester Center: 13 past producers, 11 producers, 10 occurrences, 1 unknown. 11 still produce. What was taken out: Silica, Emery, Iron, Mica. 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
Chrome-Magnetite MineIron, ChromiumPast Producer
Pegmatite QuarryMica, FeldsparProducerFeldspar
Pegmatite QuarryMica, FeldsparPast Producer
Sackett Emery MineIron, EmeryOccurrence1875
Donovan PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Donovan Pit and PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Soapstone QuarryTalc-SoapstoneProducerMetamorphic
Soapstone QuarryTalc-SoapstonePast Producer
Whetstone QuarryStoneProducerMetamorphic
Whetstone QuarryStonePast Producer

Every working 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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Dayville1.3 miles36
Littleville1.8 miles36
North Chester2.3 miles36
Chester3.0 miles36
Crescent Mills6.0 miles37
North Blandford6.3 miles36
Blandford7.6 miles36
Russell7.8 miles37

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 608287. 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.