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

Franklin, Massachusetts

44 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Franklin Town City. It lies in ZIP code area 02038. It stands on Pigeon Hill. The Survey maps it on the Franklin quadrangle.

Franklin within Norfolk County

Then and now

1887 to 1989

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 Franklin, surveyed 1989

Topographic sheet of Franklin, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

44 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.

Photographs

1 photograph,

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

John Adams Birthplace, 133 Franklin Street, Quincy, Norfolk County, MA
Unattributed, . Library of Congress

Fires nearby

123 since 2007

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 123 fires within 5 miles of Franklin between 2007 and 2020, burning about 64 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	45
Recreation and ceremony	42
Debris and open burning	14
Smoking	14
Equipment and vehicle use	7
Arson/incendiarism	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
28 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	BELLINGHAM
27 September 2015	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	BELLINGHAM
27 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	BELLINGHAM
25 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	PLAINVILLE
25 September 2015	Equipment and vehicle use	2.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	BELLINGHAM
22 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	PLAINVILLE
17 September 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	FRANKLIN
16 September 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	FRANKLIN

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Norfolk County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 527 shown

Museums hold 527 specimens collected within 10 miles of Franklin between 1843 and 1973: 251 Animalia, 213 Plantae, 56 Fungi, 6 Unrecorded, 1 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A Herz, A. B. Seymour, A. M. Rogers; D. P. Rogers 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
Polygala paucifolia Willd.	1843	Shore	Woonsocket
Gymnocarpium dryopteris (L.) Newman	1874	not recorded
Nitella tenuissima (Desv.) Kütz.	1874	Piper, S. M.
Thelypteris phegopteris (L.) Sloss.	1874	not recorded
Carex vestita Willd.	1875	Collector unspecified	Norfolk.
Loxia curvirostra minor (C.L.Brehm, 1846)	1877	Charles A. Houghton	West Medway
Passerina cyanea (Linnaeus, 1766)	1877	Charles A. Houghton	West Medway
Carex laxiflora Lam.	1879	Morong, T.	Medfield
Carex projecta Mack.	1879	T. Morong	Medfield.
Dryopteris cristata (L.) A.Gray	1879	Thomas Morong	Massachusetts, Medfield, swamps
Lindera benzoin (L.) Blume	1879	T. Morong
Lonicera caerulea L.	1879	T. Morong

All 527 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 21 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 21 workings within 5 miles of Franklin: 13 past producers, 7 producers, 1 unknown. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Silver, Gold, Gold. 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
Five Star Mineral and Mining Co	Gold	Past Producer
Sheldonville Mine	Copper, Silver, Gold	Past Producer	Vein
Sheldonville Mine	Silver, Gold	Past Producer
Wrentham Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Unknown
Wrentham Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Wrentham Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Carl A Molinari	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Carl A. Molinari Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Chestnut Street Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Franklin Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Norfolk County

Storms nearby

22 since 1994

The National Weather Service names Franklin in 22 storm reports between 1994 and 2023: 7 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 4 flood, 2 flash 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
August 2004	Tornado (F1)	Franklin	$1,500,000	F1 tornado
June 1998	Flash Flood	Franklin	$570,000	Mill Brook
August 2001	Lightning	Franklin	$200,000	no account filed
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Franklin	$40,000	no account filed
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Franklin	$20,000	no account filed
June 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Franklin	$5,000	A tree was downed on Summer Street by thunderstorm winds.
August 2002	Lightning	Franklin	$5,000	no account filed
June 2020	Flood	Franklin	$2,000	In Franklin, a flooded basement was reported on Jordan Road. Street flooding was reported on Sargent Lane at Dartmouth Road.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Franklin	$1,000	In Franklin, a tree was down on Philomena Way. Another tree was down on Moore Avenue.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Franklin	$1,000	A tree on Maple Street was downed by thunderstorm winds.
September 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Franklin	$1,000	Numerous branches on King Street, up to eight inches in diameter, were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Franklin	$500	In Franklin, on the 300 Block of Union St, a 20-person tent was lofted into the air and wrapped around some power lines.
June 2020	Hail	Franklin	-	Quarter size hail was reported in Franklin.
November 2018	Flood	Franklin	-	In Franklin, the I-495 exit southbound ramp to King Street was completely flooded and was reaching up to car doors.
September 2018	Flash Flood	Franklin	-	At 12:42 PM EST, flooding was reported into the lobby at Dean College in Franklin.
August 2015	Flood	Franklin	-	Portions of Route 140 were flooded with six to eight inches of water. Pond Street was flooded and impassable.
July 2013	Flood	Franklin	-	Minor street flooding occurred in the area near Upper Union Street. The right lane of King Street to the Interstate 495 south exit ramp was also flooded.
August 2014	Hail	Franklin	-	no account filed
July 2006	Hail	Franklin	-	no account filed
June 2004	Hail	Franklin	-	no account filed
September 1999	Heavy Rain	Franklin	-	no account filed
July 1994	Hail	Franklin	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Norfolk 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
Acorn Terrace	1.5 miles	39
Unionville	1.6 miles	44
Benjamins Landing	1.7 miles	44
Brushwood	2.2 miles	44
Country View Estates	2.3 miles	44
Westview	2.6 miles	44
Wadsworth	2.7 miles	44
City Mills	2.8 miles	39

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 611686. 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.