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

Furnace, Massachusetts

30 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Hardwick town. It lies in ZIP code area 01037. It stands on Moose Brook. The Survey maps it on the Ware quadrangle.

Furnace within Worcester County

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 Furnace, surveyed 1985
Topographic sheet of Furnace, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

30 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

23 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 23 fires within 5 miles of Furnace between 2015 and 2018, burning about 32 acres in total. 1 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 burning10
Missing data/not specified/undetermined6
Recreation and ceremony4
Natural1
Smoking1
Arson/incendiarism1

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
10 September 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
7 August 2015Recreation and ceremony2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 August 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
28 July 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
28 July 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 July 2016Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
26 July 2016Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
25 July 2016Recreation and ceremony2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,467 shown

Museums hold 1,467 specimens collected within 10 miles of Furnace between 1839 and 1974: 899 Animalia, 354 Fungi, 195 Plantae, 10 Unrecorded, 9 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. V. Schott, A. F. Hill, H. St. John, G.S. Torrey, A. Lavallee 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
A photograph of the species Bartramia pomiformis, not of this specimenBartramia pomiformis Hedw.1839unknownBarre
A photograph of the species Carex gracillima, not of this specimenCarex gracillima Schwein.1839M. S. BebbBarre
A photograph of the species Carex intumescens, not of this specimenCarex intumescens Rudge1839M. S. BebbBarre
A photograph of the species Carex lacustris, not of this specimenCarex lacustris Willd.1839M. S. BebbBarre
A photograph of the species Carex stipata, not of this specimenCarex stipata Muhl. ex Willd.1839M. S. BebbBarre
A photograph of the species Cirsium arvense, not of this specimenCirsium arvense (L.) Scop.1839M. S. BebbBarre
A photograph of the species Cypripedium acaule, not of this specimenCypripedium acaule Aiton1839M. S. BebbBarre
Nitella megacarpa (T.F.A.) R.D.W.1894G. E. SternLake Lashaway
Calyptospora goeppertiana J.G.Kühn1895not recordedUS, Massachusetts, Barre
Vaccinium corymbosum L.1895not recordedUS, Massachusetts, Barre
Calosoma calidum (Fabricius, 1775)1896Knab, Frederick (1865-1918)Massachusetts
Chloealtis conspersa (Harris, 1841)1896A.P. Morse

All 1,467 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

2 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Furnace: 2 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.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Barre Road PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Hardwick PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

2 since 2020

The National Weather Service names Furnace in 2 storm reports between 2020 and 2022: 2 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2020Thunderstorm WindOld Furnace$800In the Gilbertville section of Hardwick, a tree was down on wires on School Street.
May 2022Thunderstorm WindFurnace$500In Hardwick, a tree was down on North Road.

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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Wheelwright1.2 miles30
Hardwick2.1 miles30
New Braintree2.7 miles30
Gilbertville3.4 miles30
Barre Plains3.5 miles31
South Barre4.4 miles31
White Valley5.3 miles31
Barre6.1 miles31

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 609743. 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.