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

Forest Park, Massachusetts

50 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Springfield City. It lies in ZIP code area 01108. It stands on Mill River. The Survey maps it on the Springfield South quadrangle.

Forest Park within Hampden County

Then and now

1886 to 1985

The same ground, surveyed 99 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Forest Park, surveyed 1985
Topographic sheet of Forest Park, 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

507 since 2002

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 507 fires within 5 miles of Forest Park between 2002 and 2020, burning about 296 acres in total. 29 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined282
Equipment and vehicle use115
Natural29
Debris and open burning28
Recreation and ceremony26
Smoking21
Misuse of fire by a minor4
Arson/incendiarism2

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
9 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
7 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
6 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
6 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 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 Hampden County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,379 shown

Museums hold 1,379 specimens collected within 10 miles of Forest Park between 1844 and 1975: 611 Animalia, 402 Plantae, 339 Fungi, 19 Chromista, 8 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. E. Kirk, A. K. Harrison, F. G. Floyd 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 Taphrina johansonii Sadeb.Taphrina johansonii Sadeb.1894W.G. Farlow
Specimen of Lygodium palmatum (Bernh.) Sw.Lygodium palmatum (Bernh.) Sw.1895Deane, WalterEast Longmeadow;;;;
Specimen of Calligrapha rhoda Knab, 1909Calligrapha rhoda Knab, 19091900F. KnabWest Springfield
A photograph of the species Carex siccata, not of this specimenCarex siccata Dewey1844Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Amphicarpaea bracteata, not of this specimenAmphicarpaea bracteata (L.) Fernald1845Collector unspecified
A photograph of the species Galeopsis tetrahit, not of this specimenGaleopsis tetrahit L.1845not recorded
A photograph of the species Lactuca hirsuta, not of this specimenLactuca hirsuta Muhl. ex Nutt.1850Collector unspecified
A photograph of the species Alopecurus geniculatus, not of this specimenAlopecurus geniculatus L.1852Shurtleff, S.Westfield
A photograph of the species Carex canescens, not of this specimenCarex canescens L.1852Collector unknownWestfield.
A photograph of the species Carex pallescens, not of this specimenCarex pallescens L.1852Collector unknownWestfield
A photograph of the species Eurybia schreberi, not of this specimenEurybia schreberi (Nees) Nees1852C. A. Shurtleff
A photograph of the species Lonicera dioica, not of this specimenLonicera dioica L.1852Collector unknown

All 1,379 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 35 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 35 workings within 5 miles of Forest Park: 17 past producers, 15 producers, 1 unknown, 1 occurrence. 16 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Dimension, Flagstone, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Brick Clay. 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
Construction Aggregates PitGranite, Stone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Granby Quarry No 1Stone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Macia Emery MineEmeryOccurrenceEmery
W. New England Smelting Works IncCopperProducer
Bay State Refining Co--Chicopee, MaAluminumPlant
Chicopee PlantAluminumPast Producer
Chase PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Clay PitBrick ClayProducerClay
Clay PitBrick ClayProducerClay
Clay PitClayPast Producer

Every working recorded in Hampden County

Storms nearby

7 since 2017

The National Weather Service names Forest Park in 7 storm reports between 2017 and 2025: 4 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning, 1 hail, 1 flood. 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 2022Thunderstorm WindForest Park$25,000In Springfield, a tree was down on a vehicle and wires were down on Hartwick Street. A power pole was downed onto a house on Eleanor Road and wires were down a few homes away on Eleanor Road. Wires were also down on Blodgett Street.
May 2025Thunderstorm WindForest Park$10,000In Springfield, pictures show a large tree down on two cars.
August 2019Thunderstorm WindForest Park$3,000In Springfield, trees and wires were down on Commonwealth Avenue. A tree was down on a house on Shawmut Street. Wires were down on Blake Street due to thunderstorm winds.
July 2017LightningForest Park$2,500At 654 PM EST, amateur radio reported a house on Magnolia Terrace in Springfield was struck by lightning. The house had a smell of smoke.
May 2025Thunderstorm WindForest Park$500In East Longmeadow, photos showed a large tree and power lines down across Larkspur St.
August 2019HailForest Park-Quarter size hail was reported in the Forest Park portion of Springfield.
July 2019FloodForest Park-Two right lanes were closed due to flooding on I-91 south near exit 3 in Springfield.

Every storm recorded in Hampden 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
The X0.7 miles50
South End0.8 miles50
Old Hill1.0 miles50
Springfield1.3 miles50
Upper Hill1.6 miles50
East Forest Park1.8 miles50
McKnight and Bay1.8 miles50
North End2.4 miles50

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 609008. 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.