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

Four Corners, Massachusetts

39 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Pepperell town. It lies in ZIP code area 01463. It stands on Varnum Brook. The Survey maps it on the Pepperell quadrangle.

Four Corners within Middlesex County

Then and now

1893 to 1988

The same ground, surveyed 95 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Four Corners, surveyed 1988

Topographic sheet of Four Corners, surveyed 1893

Compare 1893 against another survey:

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.

In the 1908 county history

24,897 words on this township

The county history of 1908 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for the smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The chapter on Pepperell Town covers the township.

Read the chapter on Pepperell Town - 24,897 words.

Fires nearby

26 since 2014

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 26 fires within 5 miles of Four Corners between 2014 and 2020, burning about 10 acres in total. None 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
Debris and open burning	14
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	7
Smoking	2
Recreation and ceremony	1
Arson/incendiarism	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	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
26 September 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 July 2016	Recreation and ceremony	1.3 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	ANDOVER
2 July 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	New Hampshire Division of Forest and Lands	not named
11 June 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
8 May 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
8 May 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
8 May 2015	Smoking	under an acre	New Hampshire Division of Forest and Lands	not named
29 May 2020	Arson/incendiarism	1.8 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 184 shown

Museums hold 184 specimens collected within 10 miles of Four Corners between 1900 and 1975: 65 Animalia, 62 Protozoa, 28 Plantae, 24 Fungi, 4 Unrecorded, 1 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. F. Newton, A. F. Newton, M. K. Thayer, A. K. Moore 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
Pholiota carbonaria (Fr.) Singer	1900	H. Webster	Groton.
unnamed	1926	F.A. Gilbert
Anavitrinella pampinaria (Guenée, 1857)	1926	not recorded	Lunenburg
Arcyria cinerea (Bull.) Pers., 1801	1926	Collector unspecified
Arcyria denudata (L.) Wettst., 1886	1926	F.A. Gilbert
Alopecurus aequalis Sobol.	1930	M. L. Fernald; C. A. Weatherby
Epitheca cynosura (Say, 1840)	1930	Davis, E. M.	MA, Middlesex Co., Shirley
Hemaris thysbe Fabricius, 1775	1930	not recorded	Lunenburg
Coccyzus erythropthalmus (A.Wilson, 1811)	1950	Collector(s): James Lee Peters	Groton
Cladara atroliturata (Walker, 1862)	1974	not recorded	Dunstable
Crematogaster Lund, 1831	1974	E. V. Gregg	Wayside park, 6 mi E of Los Fresnos
Hybomitra cincta (Fabricius, 1794)	1974	not recorded	Dunstable, Westford St

All 184 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

7 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Four Corners: 7 past producers. None of them 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
J L Construction Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Pepperell Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Seven Oaks Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Seven Oaks Sand and Gravel Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Sharon Contracting Tc	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Tacey Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Tenney Street Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms nearby

1 since 2018

The National Weather Service names Four Corners in 1 storm report between 2018 and 2018: 1 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
August 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Four Corners	$1,000	At 6:10 PM EST, thunderstorm winds brought a large tree down on Hollis Street in Pepperell.

Every storm 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Babbatasset Village	0.5 miles	39
East Pepperell	0.7 miles	39
Pepperell	0.8 miles	39
Hovey Corner	1.3 miles	39
North Pepperell	1.5 miles	39
Burkinshaws Factory	1.9 miles	39
South Pepperell	2.7 miles	39
Paper Mill Village	3.5 miles	39

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 611113. 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.