Hillsville, Massachusetts
32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Spencer town. It lies in ZIP code area 01562. It stands on Turkey Hill Brook. The Survey maps it on the North Brookfield quadrangle.
Then and now
1887 to 1985The 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 sheets covering this place
32 sheetsMatched 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.
- 1887 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
- 1889 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
- 1908 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000
- 1908 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000
- 1942 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000
- 1946 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:31680
- 1946 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:31680
- 1948 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1952 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:24000
- 1952 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:24000
- 1952 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:31680
- 1952 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:31680
- 1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:25000
- 1967 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:24000
- 1967 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:24000
- 1975 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:25000
- 1982 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:25000
- 1982 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:25000
- 1985 USGS Holyoke quadrangle1:100000
- 1985 USGS Holyoke quadrangle1:100000
Fires nearby
66 since 2015The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 66 fires within 5 miles of Hillsville between 2015 and 2020, burning about 42 acres in total. None started naturally. 8 were 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 | 22 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 18 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 8 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 5 |
| Smoking | 5 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 September 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 1 September 2020 | Smoking | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 1 September 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 31 August 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 31 August 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 24 August 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 2 August 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 3 July 2016 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Specimens collected nearby
12 of 1,081 shownMuseums hold 1,081 specimens collected within 10 miles of Hillsville between 1839 and 1975: 669 Plantae, 203 Animalia, 193 Fungi, 14 Unrecorded, 2 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. A. Eaton, A. B. Seymour, A. B. Seymour et al. 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 | Species | Year | Collected by | Where, as recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Carex tenera var. tenera | 1899 | R. M. Harper | |
![]() | Pooecetes gramineus gramineus (J.F.Gmelin, 1789) | 1900 | Roscoe I. Giles | |
![]() | Ochrolechia tartarea (L.) A.Massal. | 1839 | E. Tuckerman | |
![]() | Mycobilimbia hypnorum (Lib.) Kalb & Hafellner | 1848 | E. Tuckerman | |
![]() | Tamias striatus lysteri (Richardson, 1829) | 1848 | L Agassiz | PARSONS ISLAND |
![]() | Cladonia cornucopioides F.Wilson | 1850 | J. L. Russell | Leicester |
![]() | Carex aperta Boott | 1853 | W. Boott | Massachusetts |
![]() | Hygrophorus coccineus (Schaeff.) Fr. | 1856 | D. Murray; C. J. Sprague | [Presumably Massachusetts] |
| Opegrapha varia Pers. | 1856 | E. Tuckerman | ||
![]() | Aspidium acrostichoides (Michx.) Sw. | 1859 | M. S. Bebb | |
![]() | Acarospora schleicheri (Ach.) A.Massal. | 1862 | E. Hall | |
| Leucobryum vulgare Hampe | 1892 | unknown |
All 1,081 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Mines and quarries nearby
6 within 5 milesThe federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Hillsville: 6 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highway Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Highway Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Kittredge Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Lyford Road Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Town of Spencer | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Vandale Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms nearby
3 since 2013The National Weather Service names Hillsville in 3 storm reports between 2013 and 2022: 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2013 | Flood | Hillsville | $5,000 | Meadow Street was flooded and impassable. A car was stuck in the flood waters. |
| March 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hillsville | $1,300 | In Spencer, a large tree and wires were down on Woodside Road. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hillsville | $500 | In Spencer, a tree was down on Northwest Road. |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower Wire Village | 0.9 miles | 42 | |
| Spencer | 1.5 miles | 42 | |
| Sibleys Corner | 1.9 miles | 42 | |
| Upper Wire Village | 2.0 miles | 42 | |
| Lambs Grove | 2.5 miles | 42 | |
| Proctors corner | 2.5 miles | 42 | |
| Tafts Corner | 2.7 miles | 42 | |
| South Spencer | 2.9 miles | 33 |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 609929. 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.









































