BlockBefore

Island, Massachusetts

44 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1889 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Worcester City. It lies in ZIP code area 01610. It stands on Pratt Brook. The Survey maps it on the Worcester South quadrangle.

Island within Worcester County

Then and now

1889 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 100 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Island, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Island, surveyed 1889

On record in Island

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register within a mile 12 of 107 shown

The National Register names another town for these. They stand within one mile of this settlement's coordinate.

Every listing in Worcester County

Topographic sheets covering this place

20 surveys from 44 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.

In the county-history sources

37,512 words on this township

History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889 names this settlement in its chapter on Worcester City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

But there were three serious drawbacks to the prosperity and profits of the canal, which soon made it unpopular with most of its stockholders and patrons. Unfortunately, a portion of the canal was located in the Blackstone River, and boats were more or less delayed in high, and also in low water, and in some seasons for weeks were detained with goods which were wanted for immediate use or sale. In some years the canal was for four or five months closed with ice. In a season of drought the manufacturers were jealous of the boatmen drawing so much water, and on several occasions in Rhode Island the owners of the mills and of the water-power ordered large loads of stone tipped into the canal-locks to prevent the boats from passing, which almost excited a riot among the boatmen, and some of the millowners were afraid their mills would be fired, as they had been threatened.'

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889.

The question of a railroad between Providence and Worcester, a distance of forty-three miles, was seriously discussed as early as 1837, but nothing was done for several years. In August, 1845, the enterprise came nearly to a stand-still, although eight hundred thousand dollars had been subscribed under the Rhode Island charter and one hundred thousand dollars under the Massachusetts charter; but the Rhode Island charter required that the whole capital of one million dollars should be taken up before the company could proceed. The amount was linally raised, and a consolidation was effected November 4, 1845, of the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Companies, each of which was chartered in 1844. The main line was opened in October, 1847, when a train, made up of nine covered cars and twelve or thirteen open cars, drawn by three powerful engines, arrived in Worcester with twelve hundred passengers from Providence and towns on the line.

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889.

The coal was said to be of the same variety as the Rhode Island, Schuylkill and Lehigh coal, and was found, according to statements then made, to ignite easier than any of them and to burn longer. Careful comparisons were made of the relative value of these different varieties and the result, with a given quantity of each, showed as follows :

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Worcester City - it names this place 5 more 5 times.

Fires near this place

69 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 69 fires within 5 miles of Island between 2015 and 2020, burning about 54 acres in total. None started naturally. 7 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 burning21
Smoking15
Recreation and ceremony14
Missing data/not specified/undetermined7
Arson/incendiarism7
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
8 September 2015Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 September 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 September 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
14 September 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
26 August 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
13 August 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
6 July 2015Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 June 2020Debris and open burningunder 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 1,706 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,706 specimens collected within 10 miles of Island between 1839 and 1974: 1,011 Plantae, 400 Animalia, 271 Fungi, 16 Unrecorded, 6 Protozoa, 2 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A E WOODHEAD, A. A. Eaton, A. B. Seymour 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 Sceptridium dissectum (Spreng.) LyonSceptridium dissectum (Spreng.) Lyon1899H. H. Scudder
Specimen of Pooecetes gramineus gramineus (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)Pooecetes gramineus gramineus (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)1900Roscoe I. Giles
A photograph of the species Ochrolechia tartarea, not of this specimenOchrolechia tartarea (L.) A.Massal.1839E. Tuckerman
A photograph of the species Carex laxiflora, not of this specimenCarex laxiflora Lam.1840Thomas NuttallCambridge.
A photograph of the species Carex vestita, not of this specimenCarex vestita Willd.1840Thomas NuttallCambridge.
A photograph of the species Mycobilimbia hypnorum, not of this specimenMycobilimbia hypnorum (Lib.) Kalb & Hafellner1848E. Tuckerman
A photograph of the species Tamias striatus, not of this specimenTamias striatus lysteri (Richardson, 1829)1848L AgassizPARSONS ISLAND
A photograph of the species Cladonia cornucopioides, not of this specimenCladonia cornucopioides F.Wilson1850J. L. RussellLeicester
A photograph of the species Geranium maculatum, not of this specimenGeranium maculatum L.1850not recorded
A photograph of the species Packera aurea, not of this specimenPackera aurea (L.) Á.Löve & D.Löve1850not recorded
Elymus repens (L.) Gould1892Arthur B. SeymourCambridge.
Festuca pratensis Huds.1892Arthur B. SeymourCambridge.

All 1,706 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 15 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 15 workings within 5 miles of Island: 10 past producers, 3 producers, 2 plants. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Iron, Lead, Stone. 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
Bd Bloomfield Co--Worcester, Ma.LeadPlant
Crucible Spec. Metals--Auburn, Ma.IronPlant
Shrewsbury Trap RockStoneProducer
30 Southwest Cutoff PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Auburn PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Capa CorporationSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Crossover PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Donald P Graves Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
F Ang G Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
F and G PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

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
Vernon Hill0.3 miles44
Cambridge0.5 miles44
South Worcester0.6 miles44
University Park0.7 miles45
Union Hill0.7 miles45
Rice Square0.8 miles44
College Hill1.0 miles44
Worcester1.1 miles45

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 610640. 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.