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Gates Crossing, Massachusetts

43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Leominster City. It lies in ZIP code area 01453. It lies near Pine Hill. The Survey maps it on the Clinton quadrangle.

Gates Crossing within Worcester County

Then and now

1887 to 1997

The same ground, surveyed 110 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Gates Crossing, surveyed 1997
Topographic sheet of Gates Crossing, surveyed 1887

Compare 1887 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

20 surveys from 43 printed 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.

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Leominster city. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

From History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889 - Leominster City

Chapter Clviil Military

Leominster haa an honorable war record. She would, indeed, be unworthy both of her ancestors and the times of her birth, if in all the struggles for liberty, she had not made full proof of her patriotism. It is true that the first settlers of the town had no personal experience of the tomahawk and the scalping-knife; but the story of what their fathers had suffered was a close remembrance ; and these hardy pioneers had barely time to build their rude homes, " establish God's house in the wilderness," connect the hill-tops by roads and erect here and there a mill to grind their corn and saw their logs, when the alarm of war sounded at the North, and the sword did not, for the next ihirty-and-five years, rest easy in its scabbard.

Read the rest of this passage

In the county-history sources

21,669 words on this township

History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The chapter on Leominster City covers the township.

Read the chapter on Leominster City - 21,669 words.

Fires near this place

124 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 124 fires within 5 miles of Gates Crossing between 2002 and 2020, burning about 2,747 acres in total. None started naturally. None 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 burning56
Missing data/not specified/undetermined44
Recreation and ceremony11
Smoking11
Equipment and vehicle use1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
7 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.4 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMONOOSNOC HILL
22 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
18 September 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
26 August 2017Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 August 2016Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 August 2016Missing 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 Worcester County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 1,852 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,852 specimens collected within 10 miles of Gates Crossing between 1859 and 1974: 1,096 Animalia, 557 Plantae, 179 Fungi, 8 Unrecorded, 8 Chromista, 4 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Gibson, A. Ferrett 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 Porella platyphylla (L.) Pfeiff.Porella platyphylla (L.) Pfeiff.1895James F. CollinsSouth spur, Mount Wachusett
Specimen of Athyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.ClausenAthyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.Clausen1900DavenportPine Hill; Medford
A photograph of the species Condylura cristata, not of this specimenCondylura cristata cristata (Linnaeus, 1758)1859E S WheelerBERLIN
A photograph of the species Dryobates pubescens, not of this specimenDryobates pubescens medianus (Swainson, 1832)1861not recordedBolton
Clemmys insculpta Fitzinger, 18351864Agassiz
A photograph of the species Hylesinus aculeatus, not of this specimenHylesinus aculeatus Say & T., 18241872unknownFitchburg
A photograph of the species Carex foenea, not of this specimenCarex foenea Willd.1878W. BoottWachusett Mountain
A photograph of the species Bromus sterilis, not of this specimenBromus sterilis L.1879C. E. Faxon
A photograph of the species Merulius lacrymans, not of this specimenMerulius lacrymans (Wulfen) Schumach.1879Howes, A.Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Sibbaldiopsis tridentata, not of this specimenSibbaldiopsis tridentata (Aiton) Rydb.1879Bailey, W.W.summit of Mt. Wachusett
A photograph of the species Hypericum gentianoides, not of this specimenHypericum gentianoides (L.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.1881Fredrick L SargentLunenburg
Arthuriomyces peckianus (Howe) Cummins & Y.Hirats.1892W. B. Hosmer

All 1,852 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 13 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 13 workings within 5 miles of Gates Crossing: 5 producers, 4 past producers, 2 prospects, 1 occurrence. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Tungsten, Iron. 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
LeominsterLithium, TinOccurrence1824
Leominster PitGeothermalPast Producer
Luciani ProspectTungstenProspect
Sterling ProspectIron, ZincProspect
Keating Quarry & MillStone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown
Keating Quarry and MillStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Kanis PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Lancaster PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Luenburg PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
P J KeatingSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary

Every working 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
Pratt Junction1.9 miles43
Leominster2.3 miles42
Ponakin Mill2.8 miles43
North Leominster3.2 miles44
Lunenburg Station3.3 miles44
West Leominster3.6 miles42
North Village3.8 miles43
Sterling4.2 miles46

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.

Wikidata item Q122553299The 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 617002. 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.