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

East Littleton, Massachusetts

43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Westford town. It lies in ZIP code area 01886. It stands on Sparks Hill. The Survey maps it on the Westford quadrangle.

East Littleton 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 East Littleton, surveyed 1988
Topographic sheet of East Littleton, surveyed 1886

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 county-history sources

17,609 words on this township

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880 names this settlement in its chapter on Westford Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

In 1854 Charles G. Sargent came to Graniteville and entered into partnership with Francis A. Calvert, under the firm name of Calvert and Sargent. They bought of Solomon Richardson his farm, and his saw and grist mill. These buildings were converted into shops for the manufacture of woollen machinery. They were burned in December, 1855, and then what is now Mill No. 1 - a two-story building, 185x52 feet, with a connecting L, 32 X 40 feet - was erected. Trto years later tiiey built Mill No. 2, of the same dimensions. A partnership was formed in 1857, with John W. P. Abbot, for the manufacture of worsted yarns ; but being unable to attend to so much business, Mr. Sargent sold his interest to Allan Cameron in 1857. In 1862 Mr. Sargent bought his partner's interest, and continued the business in his own name. He invented a number of important machines pertaining to his branch of manufacture. Among them are a burr-picker, a wool-drying maciiine, a patent atomizer for oiling wool, and a metallic waste-card for reducing yarn, til read- waste, and soft flannels to wool.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Westford Town.

Fires near this place

39 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 39 fires within 5 miles of East Littleton between 2015 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
Debris and open burning24
Missing data/not specified/undetermined10
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Recreation and ceremony2
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
6 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 July 2015Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 July 2017Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 June 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 May 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 May 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 May 2017Missing data/not specified/undetermined13 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 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 Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 569 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 569 specimens collected within 10 miles of East Littleton between 1898 and 1975: 312 Animalia, 147 Plantae, 78 Fungi, 29 Protozoa, 3 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Gibson, A. F. Newton 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 Boletus griseus, not of this specimenBoletus griseus Frost1898H. Webster
A photograph of the species Exosporium pusillum, not of this specimenExosporium pusillum P.Karst.1898King C. A.Stony Brook
A photograph of the species Salix eriocephala, not of this specimenSalix eriocephala Michx.1898E. F. Williams
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 Galium tinctorium, not of this specimenGalium tinctorium (L.) Scop.1899not recorded
A photograph of the species Marsilea quadrifolia, not of this specimenMarsilea quadrifolia L.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 Cephalanthus occidentalis, not of this specimenCephalanthus occidentalis L.1900M. RodmanConcord.
A photograph of the species Nuphar advena, not of this specimenNuphar advena (Aiton) Aiton1900M. RodmanConcord.
A photograph of the species Salix humilis, not of this specimenSalix humilis var. microphylla (Andersson) Fernald1900M. RodmanConcord.

All 569 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 18 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 18 workings within 5 miles of East Littleton: 12 past producers, 4 producers, 1 occurrence, 1 plant. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Kyanite, Graphite, Granite. 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
Fiber Matls Plant--Graniteville, MaGraphitePlant
Forest Road QuarryGranitePast Producer
Oak Hill Andalusite OccurrenceKyaniteOccurrenceMetamorphic
Acton PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Britt ConstructionSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Britt PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Forest Road Granite CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
J E Farmer PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Kennedy Brothers Acton Sand and GraSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Nardone PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

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
Parkerville1.0 miles43
Littleton Common1.5 miles43
Westford1.6 miles43
Centre Village (historical)2.1 miles43
Forge Village2.2 miles43
Graniteville2.5 miles43
Westford Station2.7 miles43
Camp Wakitatina2.8 miles43

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.

Wikidata item Q122546129The 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 617110. 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.