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

Dunstable, Massachusetts

50 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Dunstable town. It lies in ZIP code area 01827. It stands on Black Brook. The Survey maps it on the Nashua South quadrangle.

Dunstable within Middlesex County

Then and now

1886 to 1988

The same ground, surveyed 102 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Dunstable, surveyed 1988
Topographic sheet of Dunstable, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

50 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

24 since 2014

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 24 fires within 5 miles of Dunstable between 2014 and 2020, burning about 16 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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 burning13
Missing data/not specified/undetermined8
Arson/incendiarism2
Recreation and ceremony1

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
2 July 2014Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreNew Hampshire Division of Forest and Landsnot named
24 June 2017Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.5 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
11 June 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 May 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 May 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
29 May 2020Arson/incendiarism1.8 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 May 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 May 2015Arson/incendiarism2.0 acresMassachusetts 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 473 shown

Museums hold 473 specimens collected within 10 miles of Dunstable between 1898 and 1975: 319 Plantae, 62 Protozoa, 57 Animalia, 28 Fungi, 4 Unrecorded, 3 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. F. Newton, A. F. Newton, M. K. Thayer, A. J. S. 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 Exosporium pusillum, not of this specimenExosporium pusillum P.Karst.1898King C. A.Stony Brook
A photograph of the species Galium tinctorium, not of this specimenGalium tinctorium (L.) Scop.1899not recorded
Araiospora pulchra Thaxt.1900Thaxter, R.Stony Brook
A photograph of the species Boletus frostii, not of this specimenBoletus frostii J.L.Russell1900A. W. Flint
A photograph of the species Cenchrus spinifex, not of this specimenCenchrus spinifex Cav.1900C. H. KnowltonN Chelmsford.
A photograph of the species Pholiota carbonaria, not of this specimenPholiota carbonaria (Fr.) Singer1900H. WebsterGroton.
A photograph of the species Tricholoma acris, not of this specimenTricholoma acris Peck1900not recorded
A photograph of the species Tricholoma columbetta, not of this specimenTricholoma columbetta (Fr.) P.Kumm.1900Mrs. Page
A photograph of the species Alabama argillacea, not of this specimenAlabama argillacea (Hübner, 1823)1930not recordedLowell
A photograph of the species Alopecurus aequalis, not of this specimenAlopecurus aequalis Sobol.1930M. L. Fernald; C. A. Weatherby
A photograph of the species Salix bebbiana, not of this specimenSalix bebbiana Sarg.1930J. Straughan
unnamed1950A. R. Hodgdon; J. Straughan1 1/4 miles south of Pelham Village

All 473 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 26 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 26 workings within 5 miles of Dunstable: 20 past producers, 6 producers. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Granite, 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
West Chelmsford QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Fletcher Westford QuarryGraniteProducer
Forest Road QuarryGranitePast Producer
Guilmette Bros GraniteGranitePast ProducerGranite
H E Fletcher CoGranitePast ProducerGranite
Le Masurier Granite Quarry IncGranitePast ProducerGranite
Le Masurier Quarry and MillGraniteProducer
North Chelmsford QuarryGraniteProducer
Oak Hill QuarryGranitePast Producer
Oakhill Granite Co IncGranitePast ProducerGranite

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms nearby

1 since 2025

The National Weather Service names Dunstable in 1 storm report between 2025 and 2025: 1 thunderstorm wind. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2025Thunderstorm WindDunstable$500In Dunstable, there were downed powerlines on Main St.

Every storm 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
Frederick Corner1.9 miles50
Camp Massapoag1.9 miles50
Camp Immaculate Heart2.1 miles50
East Groton2.5 miles50
Hayward Corner2.5 miles50
Swan Corner3.0 miles50
Flints Corner3.0 miles50
Tyngsboro3.1 miles50

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 611441. 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.