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

Groton, Massachusetts

41 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Groton town. It lies in ZIP code area 01450. It stands on Gibbet Hill. The Survey maps it on the Ayer quadrangle. 1,353 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 331 feet above sea level.

Groton within Middlesex County

Population over time

2 figures

Groton grew from 1,124 to 1,353 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
20101,124
20201,353+229 (+20%)

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 Groton, surveyed 1988
Topographic sheet of Groton, surveyed 1893

Topographic sheets covering this place

41 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

41 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 41 fires within 5 miles of Groton between 2015 and 2020, burning about 29 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 burning24
Missing data/not specified/undetermined11
Recreation and ceremony2
Railroad operations and maintenance1
Arson/incendiarism1
Equipment and vehicle use1
Smoking1

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
26 September 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 July 2015Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 July 2016Recreation and ceremony1.3 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlANDOVER
26 June 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
10 June 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 May 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
7 May 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 May 2017Missing data/not specified/undetermined13 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 377 shown

Museums hold 377 specimens collected within 10 miles of Groton between 1900 and 1975: 241 Animalia, 62 Protozoa, 40 Plantae, 29 Fungi, 4 Unrecorded, 1 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. Gibson, A. F. Newton, A. F. Newton, M. K. Thayer 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 Pholiota carbonaria, not of this specimenPholiota carbonaria (Fr.) Singer1900H. WebsterGroton.
unnamed1926F.A. Gilbert
A photograph of the species Anavitrinella pampinaria, not of this specimenAnavitrinella pampinaria (Guenée, 1857)1926not recordedLunenburg
A photograph of the species Arcyria cinerea, not of this specimenArcyria cinerea (Bull.) Pers., 18011926Collector unspecified
A photograph of the species Arcyria denudata, not of this specimenArcyria denudata (L.) Wettst., 18861926F.A. Gilbert
A photograph of the species Alopecurus aequalis, not of this specimenAlopecurus aequalis Sobol.1930M. L. Fernald; C. A. Weatherby
A photograph of the species Cistothorus stellaris, not of this specimenCistothorus stellaris (J.F.Naumann, 1823)1930Collector(s): James Lee PetersHarvard
A photograph of the species Colaptes auratus, not of this specimenColaptes auratus luteus Bangs, 18981930Collector(s): James Lee PetersHarvard
A photograph of the species Epitheca cynosura, not of this specimenEpitheca cynosura (Say, 1840)1930Davis, E. M.MA, Middlesex Co., Shirley
A photograph of the species Hemaris thysbe, not of this specimenHemaris thysbe Fabricius, 17751930not recordedLunenburg
A photograph of the species Lanius ludovicianus, not of this specimenLanius ludovicianus migrans W.Palmer, 18981930Collector(s): James Lee PetersHarvard
A photograph of the species Molothrus ater, not of this specimenMolothrus ater ater (Boddaert, 1783)1930Collector(s): James Lee PetersHarvard

All 377 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

9 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Groton: 9 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
Black PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
J L Construction CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Joy Contracting TcSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Pepperell PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Sharon Contracting TcSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Shirley PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Tacey PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Tenney Street PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Willow PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms nearby

18 since 1995

The National Weather Service names Groton in 18 storm reports between 1995 and 2023: 13 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
September 2016Thunderstorm WindGroton$10,000Several trees were downed onto Riverbend Road.
September 2016Thunderstorm WindGroton$10,000Trees and wires on Jenkins Road were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindGroton$10,000Trees and power lines on Lowell Road were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2008Thunderstorm WindGroton$10,000Two utility poles and their wires were downed by thunderstorm winds, causing power outages.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindGroton$10,000no account filed
September 2016Thunderstorm WindGroton$5,000A tree was downed onto power lines by thunderstorm winds.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindGroton$1,300In Groton, a large tree was down on Farmers Row and power lines were down on West Street.
August 2020Thunderstorm WindGroton$1,000In Pepperell, a large tree was down at River and Elm Street.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindGroton$500In Groton, a tree was down on Chicopee Row. Trees and wires were down near Hollis Street.
March 2012HailGroton-Penny to quarter size hail fell in a swath from Groton to Shirley.
July 2007Thunderstorm WindGroton-Trees and wires were downed, which blocked Route 119 for a time.
July 2007HailGroton-Quarter size hail.
July 2007Thunderstorm WindGroton-Four inch diameter limbs were reported down.
July 2001Thunderstorm WindGroton-no account filed
July 1997HailGroton-no account filed
October 1996Flash FloodWest Groton-no account filed
October 1996Flash FloodWest Groton-no account filed
October 1995Thunderstorm WindGroton-no account filed

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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Paper Mill Village1.4 miles39
South Pepperell2.7 miles39
West Groton2.8 miles44
Vose3.1 miles44
Ayer3.5 miles41
Woodsville3.7 miles41
East Pepperell3.7 miles39
Babbatasset Village3.8 miles39

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.

Wikipedia article on GrotonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q5610757The 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 611119. 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.