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

Hamilton, Massachusetts

42 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Hamilton town. It lies in ZIP code area 01982. It stands on Long Causeway Brook. The Survey maps it on the Ipswich quadrangle.

Hamilton within Essex County

Then and now

1888 to 1997

The same ground, surveyed 109 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Hamilton, surveyed 1997

Topographic sheet of Hamilton, surveyed 1888

Topographic sheets covering this place

42 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

47 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 47 fires within 5 miles of Hamilton between 2015 and 2020, burning about 111 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 burning	18
Recreation and ceremony	6
Smoking	6
Equipment and vehicle use	5
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	4
Railroad operations and maintenance	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Natural	1
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
7 September 2020	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
5 September 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	BEVERLY
8 August 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	BEVERLY
28 August 2016	Railroad operations and maintenance	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	IPSWICH
25 August 2017	Railroad operations and maintenance	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
22 August 2016	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	IPSWICH
30 July 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	BEVERLY
3 July 2016	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	IPSWICH

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Essex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 5,981 shown

Museums hold 5,981 specimens collected within 10 miles of Hamilton between 1800 and 1975: 2,090 Plantae, 1,761 Animalia, 1,307 Fungi, 360 Unrecorded, 313 Chromista, 91 Protozoa, 59 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A H HIGGINSON, A Perlmutter, A. A. Eaton 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
Rhodocollybia prolixa var. distorta (Fr.) Antonín, Halling & Noordel.	1800	R. B. Mackintosh	Peabody
Brasenia schreberi J.F.Gmel.	1821	not recorded	Pleasant Pond, Wenham, Mass.
Diphyscium foliosum (Hedw.) D.Mohr	1822	ALCOTT
Arcyria oerstedii Rostaf., 1875	1826	F. A. Gilbert
Glyceria obtusa (Muhl.) Trin.	1838	W Oakes
Lecanora tartarea (L.) Ach.	1839	E. Tuckerman	Manchester
Ochrolechia yasudae Vainio	1839	Tuckerman, E.	[USA] Manchester, Massachusetts.
Clethra alnifolia L.	1840	OakesHerbarium	Rowley
Euphorbia polygonifolia L.	1840	Wolle, J.	Ipswich
Iva frutescens L.	1840	Oakes	ad Ipswich
Potentilla anserina L.	1840	Wolle, J.	Ipswich
Sisymbrium officinale (L.) Scop.	1840	Oakes	Ipswich

All 5,981 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

8 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Hamilton: 6 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Atwater Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Manchester Sand and Stone Co. Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Goodhue Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Ipswich Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Miles River Sand and Gravel Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
R W Drinkwater	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
R W Drinkwater Inc	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Topseal Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Essex County

Storms nearby

4 since 1993

The National Weather Service names Hamilton in 4 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 4 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
September 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Hamilton	$5,000	A tree and wires on Winthrop Street were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Hamilton	$1,000	At 444 PM EST, a tree was reported down on Woodbury Street in Hamilton.
August 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Hamilton	$300	In Ipswich, a tree was down on County Rd.
August 1993	Thunderstorm Wind	Hamilton	-	Trees were downed by thunderstorm winds.

Every storm recorded in Essex 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
Nancys Corner	1.7 miles	42
Asbury Grove	2.4 miles	42
South Hamilton	2.8 miles	42
Essex Falls	2.9 miles	42
Aqawam (historical)	3.0 miles	42
Ipswich	3.0 miles	42
Wenham Neck	3.0 miles	40
Essex	3.2 miles	42

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 599590. 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.