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

Fiskdale, Massachusetts

39 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Sturbridge town. It lies in ZIP code area 01518. It stands on Cedar Brook. The Survey maps it on the Southbridge quadrangle. 2,797 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 627 feet above sea level.

Fiskdale within Worcester County

Population over time

2 figures

Fiskdale grew from 2,583 to 2,797 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Year	People	Change
2010	2,583
2020	2,797	+214 (+8%)

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 Fiskdale, surveyed 1985

Topographic sheet of Fiskdale, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

39 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

35 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 35 fires within 5 miles of Fiskdale between 2015 and 2020, burning about 14 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 1 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
Equipment and vehicle use	13
Debris and open burning	6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	4
Power generation/transmission/distribution	3
Smoking	3
Natural	2
Recreation and ceremony	2
Arson/incendiarism	1
Railroad operations and maintenance	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
17 September 2020	Natural	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
5 August 2020	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
19 July 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
8 June 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
27 June 2020	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
25 June 2020	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
22 June 2020	Natural	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
17 June 2020	Railroad operations and maintenance	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 320 shown

Museums hold 320 specimens collected within 10 miles of Fiskdale between 1874 and 1975: 168 Plantae, 87 Animalia, 64 Fungi, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. F. Hill, H. St. John, G.S. Torrey, A. R. Hodgdon; L. B. Smith, A. R. Hodgdon; F. L. Steele 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.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Carex tenera var. tenera	1899	R. M. Harper
Nitella megacarpa (T.F.A.) R.D.W.	1874	Piper, S. M.
Dendroica petechia aestiva (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)	1882	G.L.	Warren
Sphagnum tenellum (Schimp.) H.Klinggr.	1889	Edwin Faxon	Hammond's Pond
Gavia immer (Brunnich, 1764)	1890	Jones, Clinton Mellen	Southbridge
Diphyscium foliosum (Hedw.) D.Mohr	1891	Lucien M. Underwood
Lycaenidae	1894	not recorded
Cirsium muticum Michx.	1897	E. L. Morris	Charlton
Juncus tenuis Willd.	1897	E. L. Morris	Charlton
Apocynum androsaemifolium L.	1898	E. L. Morris	Wales
Asclepias purpurascens L.	1898	E. L. Morris	Wales
Alyssum alyssoides (L.) L.	1899	R. M. Harper

All 320 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Fiskdale: 9 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Ciesla Brothers Inc	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Ciesla Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Dug Hill Road Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
E W Sykes Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Hi-Way Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Highway Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Holland Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Landfill Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Town of Southbridge	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Town of Sturbridge	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

8 since 2008

The National Weather Service names Fiskdale in 8 storm reports between 2008 and 2022: 4 thunderstorm wind, 2 flood, 2 tornado. 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
August 2016	Flood	Fiskdale	$10,000	A portion of South Shore Drive was washed out.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Fiskdale	$5,000	A tree on Route 148 in Fiskdale and wires on Main Street in Charlton were downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Fiskdale	$1,300	In West Brookfield, a large tree and wires were down at the three-way intersection of Southbridge Road, Webber Road, and Brookfield Road.
September 2008	Flood	Fiskdale	$1,000	Heavy rain associated with Tropical Storm Hanna resulted in the Quinebaug River overrunning its banks, flooding low lying areas.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Fiskdale	$500	In Brookfield, a tree was down on Webber Road and Schoolhouse Cross Road. Report relayed by amateur radio.
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Fiskdale	$500	In the Fiskdale section of Sturbridge, a tree was down on the southbound side of Route 148.
June 2011	Tornado (EF0)	Fiskdale	-	A third tornado touched down briefly from the same thunderstorm that produced the north Wilbraham and north Brimfield tornadoes. This tornado touched down in Wells State Park and then continued on across Walker Pond Road and Podunk Road, lifting up just west of Route 49. Damage was generally limited to downed trees, but one of these fell onto a house on Walker Pond Road. All associated property damage estimates are included in the EF3 tornado that occurred in Hampden and Worcester Counties.
June 2011	Tornado (EF3)	Fiskdale	-	A supercell thunderstorm developed over western Massachusetts. This storm strengthened and produced a long-lived, very significant tornado that did extensive damage across southwest and south central Massachusetts.\|\|This storm will be noted not only for its intensity, but also for the length of the continuous damage path, approximately 38 miles, the last 6 of which were in Worcester County. The tornado was also very wide at some points, reaching a maximum width of one half mile.\|\|Once the tornado moved into the Brimfield State Forest, significant damage occurred to both structures and forested areas for several miles before the tornado reached the Southbridge Municipal Airport. Here numerous aircraft were lifted off the ground and into the woods east of the airport. The tornado continued east before lifting in the southwest part of Charlton.\|\|The majority of the damage done by this tornado was done during the first 31 miles of the track, in Hampden County. All of the property damage, injuries, and fatalities are accounted for in the Hampden County portion of the tornado. The majority of the property damage and injuries, and all of the fatalities occurred in Hampden County. However, there was enough damage in Sturbridge and Southbridge that President Obama amended his original disaster declaration for Hampden County to include Sturbridge and Southbridge.

Every storm recorded in Worcester 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Snellville (historical)	0.8 miles	39
Old Sturbridge Village	1.0 miles	39
Robinson Crusoe Camp	1.9 miles	39
Sturbridge	1.9 miles	39
Westville	4.1 miles	39
Globe Village	4.2 miles	39
Southbridge	5.1 miles	39
Sandersdale	6.3 miles	39

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 Fiskdale	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q5455184	The 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 610057. 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.