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

Littleton, Massachusetts

41 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Littleton town. It lies in ZIP code area 01460. It stands on Half Moon Brook. The Survey maps it on the Ayer quadrangle.

Littleton within Middlesex County

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 Littleton, surveyed 1988
Topographic sheet of Littleton, 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.

In the county-history sources

12,505 words on this township

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880 names this settlement in its chapter on Littleton Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

It is remarkable that the southeastern part of Littleton, now called Nashoba, w-as not a part of the Indian town, but was very early settled by white people and called Nashoba Farm. A family by the name of Shepard was living there in 1676, during King Philip's War. Tradition says that, in February of that year, Mary Shepard, a girl of fifteen, was stationed on Quagana Hill, a small rising south of Nashoba Hill, to warn her brothers, who were threshing, if any Indians" appeared ; but they stole up behind her, killed the brothers, and carried the girl away to Nashaway [Lancaster], from which place she escaped the same night, mounted a horse, swam the river, and rode home. The Reed house, the ruins of which may still be seen at the foot of Nashoba Hill, was built as a garrison probably about this time.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

Of these original proprietors, a few lived in the town, the majority in the adjoining towns. The committee above mentioned made a report upon the Groton bounds, which they decided were the original ones, and though rather indefinitely stated, were probably the same as laid down by Jonathan Danforth and by a former committee of the General Court.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

The name Littleton was given to the town by act of the General Court, December 3, 1715 (a date which has been erroneously given for the incorporation), as a compliment, it is said, to the Hon. George Lyltleton, M. P., one of the commissioners of the treasury, in return for which the noble gentleman presented the town with a church bell ; but on account of an error in spelling, by substituting "i" for "y," the present was withheld, with the excuse that no such town as Lyttleton could be found, and was sold by the person having it in charge. The first recorded townmeeting, for the choice of officers, was held March 13, 1715-16; the selectmen chosen were Samuel Dudley, John Perrum, John Cobleigh, Moses Whitney, and William Powers. On the 9th of May following, the Rev. Benjamin Shattuck, A. M., was chosen minister for the town, at a salary of £55 a year, to advance 'IQs a year until it amounted to £70.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

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 Littleton Town - it names this place 34 more 34 times.

Fires near this place

53 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 53 fires within 5 miles of Littleton between 2015 and 2020, burning about 35 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 burning32
Missing data/not specified/undetermined11
Railroad operations and maintenance3
Recreation and ceremony3
Equipment and vehicle use2
Smoking1
Arson/incendiarism1

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
6 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
20 September 2015Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
30 August 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 July 2015Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 July 2017Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 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 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 Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 599 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 599 specimens collected within 10 miles of Littleton between 1898 and 1975: 314 Animalia, 154 Plantae, 63 Fungi, 62 Protozoa, 3 Unrecorded, 3 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Gibson, A. F. Newton 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 Boletus griseus, not of this specimenBoletus griseus Frost1898H. Webster
A photograph of the species Exosporium pusillum, not of this specimenExosporium pusillum P.Karst.1898King C. A.Stony Brook
A photograph of the species Salix eriocephala, not of this specimenSalix eriocephala Michx.1898E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Viola brittoniana, not of this specimenViola brittoniana Pollard1898Henry A. Purdie
A photograph of the species Chrysosplenium americanum, not of this specimenChrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook.1899E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Marsilea quadrifolia, not of this specimenMarsilea quadrifolia L.1899not recorded
Araiospora pulchra Thaxt.1900Thaxter, R.Stony Brook
A photograph of the species Cephalanthus occidentalis, not of this specimenCephalanthus occidentalis L.1900M. RodmanConcord.
A photograph of the species Nuphar advena, not of this specimenNuphar advena (Aiton) Aiton1900M. RodmanConcord.
A photograph of the species Salix humilis, not of this specimenSalix humilis var. microphylla (Andersson) Fernald1900M. RodmanConcord.
A photograph of the species Alopecurus aequalis, not of this specimenAlopecurus aequalis Sobol.1930M. L. Fernald & C. A. WeatherbyPepperell
Botryobasidium vagum (Berk. & M.A.Curtis) D.P.Rogers1930O. C. BoydConcord

All 599 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Littleton: 5 past producers, 3 producers, 1 occurrence, 1 plant. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Kyanite, Graphite. 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
Fiber Matls Plant--Graniteville, MaGraphitePlant
Oak Hill Andalusite OccurrenceKyaniteOccurrenceMetamorphic
Boxborough PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
D. B. Raymond Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Nardone PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Nardone Sand and Gravel CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
San Vel Contracting CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
San Vel Pit & PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Stow Sand and Gravel IncSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Willow PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms near this place

12 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Littleton in 12 storm reports between 1994 and 2022: 6 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 1 lightning, 1 funnel cloud. The reports record 2 injuries. 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
July 1996LightningLittleton2 hurtno account filed
June 1998Flash FloodLittleton$570,000Beaver Brook
March 2022Thunderstorm WindLittleton$1,000In Littleton, trees were down on both Foster Street and Shaker Lane.
May 2008Thunderstorm WindLittleton$1,000Trees and wires on Goldsmith Street were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2007HailLittleton-Penny size hail.
July 1994Thunderstorm WindLittleton-Two trees were blown down and one fell on an unoccupied tent at a campground. There were no injuries.
July 1994Thunderstorm WindLittleton-A peak wind gust to 58 mph during a thunderstorm was recorded by the Littleton Police Dept. Pea-size hail reportedly covered the ground in Westford and pea- to marble-size hail was reported in Groton.
July 1999HailLittleton-no account filed
May 1998Thunderstorm WindLittleton-no account filed
July 1997HailLittleton-no account filed
July 1996Thunderstorm WindLittleton-no account filed
July 1996Funnel CloudLittleton-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
Centre Village (historical)1.6 miles43
Pingryville1.6 miles41
Willows2.0 miles41
Littleton Common2.1 miles43
Boxboro Station2.5 miles43
New Town (historical)2.8 miles43
Devenscrest3.0 miles41
Forge Village3.2 miles43

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 611132. 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.