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

Dwight, Massachusetts

32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Belchertown town. It lies in ZIP code area 01007. It stands on Scarboro Brook. The Survey maps it on the Belchertown quadrangle.

Dwight within Hampshire County

Then and now

1887 to 1985

The same ground, surveyed 98 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Dwight, surveyed 1985
Topographic sheet of Dwight, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

32 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 1898 county history

3,564 words on this township

The county history of 1898 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for the smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The chapter on Belchertown Town covers the township.

Read the chapter on Belchertown Town - 3,564 words.

Fires nearby

43 since 2004

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 43 fires within 5 miles of Dwight between 2004 and 2020, burning about 29 acres in total. 1 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined23
Equipment and vehicle use8
Debris and open burning6
Recreation and ceremony5
Natural1

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
29 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
28 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 July 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 June 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 June 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
26 June 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
1 June 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
7 May 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hampshire County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 8,145 shown

Museums hold 8,145 specimens collected within 10 miles of Dwight between 1781 and 1975: 3,682 Animalia, 2,610 Plantae, 1,647 Fungi, 128 Chromista, 67 Protozoa, 10 Unrecorded, 1 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. Albee, A. Allen, A. B. Seymour 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
Specimen of Cercospora violae Sacc.Cercospora violae Sacc.1895Ralph E. SmithHothouse, Mass. Agr. College, Amherst
Specimen of Actias luna Linnaeus, 1758Actias luna Linnaeus, 17581896not recorded
Specimen of Plathemis lydia (Drury, 1773)Plathemis lydia (Drury, 1773)1896not recorded
A photograph of the species Carex argyrantha, not of this specimenCarex argyrantha Tuck. ex Dewey1781H. G. JesupAmherst in Hampshire Co., and Leverett in Franklin Co., Massachusetts. [Inferred counties from precise loc.]
A photograph of the species Carex foenea, not of this specimenCarex foenea Willd.1781H. G. JesupAnd Leverett
A photograph of the species Ustilago nuda, not of this specimenUstilago nuda (C.N.Jensen) Kellerm. & Swingle1810J.E. Humphrey
A photograph of the species Ranunculus ambigens, not of this specimenRanunculus ambigens S.Watson1831S. Shurtleff
A photograph of the species Dactylis glomerata, not of this specimenDactylis glomerata L.1839S J Ewer
A photograph of the species Solidago arguta, not of this specimenSolidago arguta Aiton1841Collector(s): Henry Holmes Babcock, Henry Griswold JesupAmherst
A photograph of the species Phlebiella vaga, not of this specimenPhlebiella vaga (Fr.) P.Karst.1845Illegible collector name
A photograph of the species Elodea nuttallii, not of this specimenElodea nuttallii (Planch.) H.St.John1847H. G. Jesup
A photograph of the species Meleagris gallopavo, not of this specimenMeleagris gallopavo silvestris Vieillot, 18171847William D. WhitneyMount Tom

All 8,145 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

5 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Dwight: 2 past producers, 2 producers, 1 unknown. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Asbestos, Emery. 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
Pelham QuarryAsbestos, EmeryPast Producer
Amherst Plant No. 5Stone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Amherst Quarry Plant#5Stone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown
Belchertown PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Blakeslee-Arpaia-Chapman S&G CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Hampshire County

Storms nearby

3 since 2019

The National Weather Service names Dwight in 3 storm reports between 2019 and 2025: 3 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
July 2021Thunderstorm WindDwight$5,000In Belchertown, a utility pole was snapped and a tree was down on wires on Federal St.
August 2019Thunderstorm WindDwight$2,000In Belchertown, two trees were down on Bay Road. Another tree was down on Hamilton Street. Another tree was down on Main Street.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindDwight$1,000In Belchertown, there was a branch down on power lines blocking Town Beach Rd.

Every storm recorded in Hampshire 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
Meads Corner2.3 miles32
Knights Corner3.0 miles32
South Amherst3.1 miles44
Highland Glen Estates3.6 miles32
Cooks Corner3.6 miles32
West Pelham3.6 miles35
Packardville3.7 miles32
Mill Valley4.2 miles44

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on DwightAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q116980444The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 609144. 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.