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

Essex Falls, Massachusetts

42 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Essex town. It lies in ZIP code area 01929. It stands on Craft Hill. The Survey maps it on the Ipswich quadrangle.

Essex Falls within Essex County

Then and now

1888 to 1997

The same ground, surveyed 109 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Essex Falls, surveyed 1997
Topographic sheet of Essex Falls, surveyed 1888

Topographic sheets covering this place

42 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.

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Essex town, in the words of 1897.

1897, Essex Town

By Eliza Philbrick

We have but a faint conception of the sheep the privilege of grazing them on severe and varied labors of pioneer life, the common lands, and dogs that had Nearly everything we use today we buy killed sheep were hung, and the owners ready-made, while in the old days the of the guilty canines had also to pay colonists had to produce whatever they twice the value of the sheep killed, needed.

Read the rest of this passage

Fires nearby

36 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 36 fires within 5 miles of Essex Falls between 2015 and 2020, burning about 21 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 burning16
Recreation and ceremony7
Smoking7
Railroad operations and maintenance3
Equipment and vehicle use1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
8 August 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBEVERLY
28 August 2016Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlIPSWICH
25 August 2017Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 August 2016Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlIPSWICH
30 July 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBEVERLY
3 July 2016Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlIPSWICH
21 July 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlGLOUCESTER
18 July 2016Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlGLOUCESTER

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Essex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 6,814 shown

Museums hold 6,814 specimens collected within 10 miles of Essex Falls between 1821 and 1975: 2,306 Animalia, 2,232 Plantae, 1,320 Fungi, 404 Chromista, 397 Unrecorded, 95 Protozoa, 60 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A H HIGGINSON, A Perlmutter, A. A. Eaton 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 Caloplaca murorum Th.Fr.Caloplaca murorum Th.Fr.1900Clara E. Cummings
A photograph of the species Brasenia schreberi, not of this specimenBrasenia schreberi J.F.Gmel.1821not recordedPleasant Pond, Wenham, Mass.
A photograph of the species Glyceria obtusa, not of this specimenGlyceria obtusa (Muhl.) Trin.1838W Oakes
A photograph of the species Lecanora tartarea, not of this specimenLecanora tartarea (L.) Ach.1839E. TuckermanManchester
A photograph of the species Ochrolechia yasudae, not of this specimenOchrolechia yasudae Vainio1839Tuckerman, E.[USA] Manchester, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Clethra alnifolia, not of this specimenClethra alnifolia L.1840OakesHerbariumRowley
A photograph of the species Euphorbia polygonifolia, not of this specimenEuphorbia polygonifolia L.1840Wolle, J.Ipswich
A photograph of the species Iva frutescens, not of this specimenIva frutescens L.1840Oakesad Ipswich
A photograph of the species Potentilla anserina, not of this specimenPotentilla anserina L.1840Wolle, J.Ipswich
A photograph of the species Sisymbrium officinale, not of this specimenSisymbrium officinale (L.) Scop.1840OakesIpswich
A photograph of the species Desmarestia viridis, not of this specimenDesmarestia viridis (O.F.Müll.) J.V.Lamour.1841C. E. PeaseMarblehead
A photograph of the species Laminaria saccharina, not of this specimenLaminaria saccharina (L.) J.V.Lamour.1842N. PikePlum Island

All 6,814 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

4 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Essex Falls: 3 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, 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
Atwater PitSand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Manchester Sand and Stone Co. QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Goodhue PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
R W DrinkwaterSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary

Every working recorded in Essex 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
Essex0.7 miles42
South Essex1.2 miles42
Hamilton2.9 miles42
Manchester-by-the-Sea3.5 miles40
Wenham Neck3.6 miles40
West Manchester4.0 miles40
Centerville4.1 miles40
Beverly Farms4.3 miles40

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 Q122572610The 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 614537. 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.