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

Goss Heights, Massachusetts

37 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Huntington town. It lies in ZIP code area 01050. It stands on Middle Branch Westfield River. The Survey maps it on the Westhampton quadrangle.

Goss Heights within Hampshire County

Then and now

1886 to 1997

The same ground, surveyed 111 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Goss Heights, surveyed 1997
Topographic sheet of Goss Heights, surveyed 1886

Compare 1886 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

37 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

4 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Goss Heights between 2015 and 2020, burning about 1 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 burning1
Equipment and vehicle use1
Smoking1
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
13 June 2017Smoking1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 April 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
9 March 2020Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
19 October 2015Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hampshire County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 435 shown

Museums hold 435 specimens collected within 10 miles of Goss Heights between 1822 and 1975: 259 Animalia, 135 Plantae, 41 Fungi. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. Pealey, A.W. Montgomery; L.M. Massey, Ahles, H.E. 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 Porella platyphylloidea, not of this specimenPorella platyphylloidea (Schwein.) Lindb.1822EmmonsNorwich
A photograph of the species Carex bromoides, not of this specimenCarex bromoides Willd.1831Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Carex vesicaria, not of this specimenCarex vesicaria L.1836Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Carex vestita, not of this specimenCarex vestita Willd.1836Collector unspecified
A photograph of the species Dichanthelium depauperatum, not of this specimenDichanthelium depauperatum (Muhl.) Gould1868Joseph BlakeWesthampton
A photograph of the species Buteo platypterus, not of this specimenButeo platypterus (Vieillot, 1823)1870Crum, Milo Tuttle; Clinton Mellen Jones CollectionRussell
A photograph of the species Poecile atricapillus, not of this specimenPoecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766)1870Clinton Mellen Jones CollectionRussell
A photograph of the species Lygodium palmatum, not of this specimenLygodium palmatum (Bernh.) Sw.1872Miller, E.S.East Hampton
A photograph of the species Eleusine indica, not of this specimenEleusine indica (L.) Gaertn.1874Frederick N. Pease
A photograph of the species Leucobryum glaucum, not of this specimenLeucobryum glaucum (Hedw.) Ångstr.1877H. J. BiddlecomeChester
A photograph of the species Botrychium dissectum, not of this specimenBotrychium dissectum Spreng.1879not recorded
A photograph of the species Puccinia recondita, not of this specimenPuccinia recondita Roberge ex Desm.1885Mason Frank C. Mrs.Huntington

All 435 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 13 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 13 workings within 5 miles of Goss Heights: 5 producers, 5 past producers, 1 unknown, 1 occurrence. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Mica, Lithium, Silica, 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
Pegmatite QuarryMica, FeldsparProducerFeldspar
Pegmatite QuarryMica, FeldsparPast Producer
Donovan PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Donovan Pit and PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Silica QuarrySilicaProducer
Silica QuarrySilicaPast Producer
Whetstone QuarryStoneProducerMetamorphic
Whetstone QuarryStonePast Producer
McKinney LedgeMicaOccurrenceMica
McKinney Ledge ProspectMicaProspect

Every working recorded in Hampshire 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
Norwich Bridge1.0 miles37
Knightville1.5 miles37
Huntington1.8 miles36
Norwich2.6 miles37
Fomer4.4 miles37
South Worthington5.7 miles36
Westhampton5.9 miles37
Loudville7.4 miles42

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 Q122595765The 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 608429. 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.