BlockDana, Massachusetts
32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Petersham town. It lies near Stevens Island. The Survey maps it on the Quabbin Reservoir quadrangle. The federal gazetteer marks this settlement historical: it is no longer a populated place, though the surveys that recorded it still are.
Then and now
1887 to 1990The same ground, surveyed 103 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
Compare 1887 against another survey:
Topographic sheets covering this place
18 surveys from 32 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1887 USGS Belchertown quadrangle1:62500
- 1890 USGS Belchertown quadrangle1:62500
- 1893 USGS Belchertown quadrangle1:62500, 8 printings
- 1908 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1942 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000
- 1944 USGS Quabbin Reservoir quadrangle1:31680, 3 printings
- 1948 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1952 USGS Quabbin Reservoir quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
- 1952 USGS Quabbin Reservoir quadrangle1:24000
- 1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Quabbin Reservoir quadrangle1:25000
- 1967 USGS Quabbin Reservoir quadrangle1:24000
- 1975 USGS Quabbin Reservoir quadrangle1:25000
- 1985 USGS Holyoke quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1990 USGS Shutesbury quadrangle1:25000, 2 printings
In the county-history sources
13,142 words on this townshipHistory of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889 names this settlement in its chapter on Petersham Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
A second church of the Orthodox Congregational denomination was organized in the southwest part of the town, on the borders of Dana and Hardwick, in the year 1836 or 1837, and a meeting-house was built. Probably the ^nearness of the locality to Dana Centre led to its discontinuance.
Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889.
Baptist Chuech. - At the time of the Revolution, and for some years afterward, a Baptist Society was maintained in the southwesterly part of the town, its church being located near the Factory Village, socalled, otherwise Nichewaug. Rev. Samuel Dennis and Rev. Mr. Sellon were pastors. The meeting-house was subsequently moved to Dana, where it was for some time occupied by the same society and afterward by Universalists, finally being used for secular purposes.
Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Fires near this place
3 since 2016Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Dana (historical) between 2016 and 2018, burning about 5 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 July 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 2.0 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 24 July 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 21 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Specimens collected near this place
12 of 1,565 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,565 specimens collected within 10 miles of Dana (historical) between 1839 and 1975: 906 Animalia, 404 Fungi, 231 Plantae, 15 Unrecorded, 9 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. V. Schott, A. Melander, A. Melander & A. Melander 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Bartramia pomiformis Hedw. | 1839 | unknown | Barre |
 | Carex gracillima Schwein. | 1839 | M. S. Bebb | Barre |
 | Carex intumescens Rudge | 1839 | M. S. Bebb | Barre |
 | Carex lacustris Willd. | 1839 | M. S. Bebb | Barre |
 | Carex stipata Muhl. ex Willd. | 1839 | M. S. Bebb | Barre |
 | Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop. | 1839 | M. S. Bebb | Barre |
 | Cypripedium acaule Aiton | 1839 | M. S. Bebb | Barre |
| Calyptospora goeppertiana J.G.Kühn | 1895 | not recorded | US, Massachusetts, Barre | |
| Vaccinium corymbosum L. | 1895 | not recorded | US, Massachusetts, Barre | |
| Calosoma calidum (Fabricius, 1775) | 1896 | Knab, Frederick (1865-1918) | Massachusetts | |
| Amblyscirtes vialis (W.H.Edwards, 1862) | 1927 | Farqubar, D.W. | Gillbertville | |
| Polyporus cinnabarinus (Jacq.) Fr. | 1927 | Spaulding P. | Petersham |
All 1,565 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Dana (historical): 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Iron. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrews Mine | Iron | Occurrence | 1871 |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Dana (historical) | 1.7 miles | 32 | |
| Dana Center | 2.3 miles | 31 | |
| Nichewaug | 3.3 miles | 31 | |
| Greenwich Village (historical) | 3.5 miles | 32 | |
| Greenwich (historical) | 5.4 miles | 32 | |
| Petersham | 5.6 miles | 31 | |
| Burrage Corner | 6.4 miles | 32 | |
| Hardwick | 6.7 miles | 30 |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 617471. 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.