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

Lunenburg, Massachusetts

44 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Lunenburg town. It lies in ZIP code area 01462. It stands on Clarks Hill. The Survey maps it on the Shirley quadrangle. 1,789 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 571 feet above sea level.

Lunenburg within Worcester County

Population over time

2 figures

Lunenburg grew from 1,760 to 1,789 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.

Year	People	Change
2010	1,760
2020	1,789	+29 (+2%)

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 Lunenburg, surveyed 1988

Topographic sheet of Lunenburg, surveyed 1893

Topographic sheets covering this place

44 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

142 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 142 fires within 5 miles of Lunenburg between 2015 and 2020, burning about 87 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None 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	55
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	52
Smoking	24
Recreation and ceremony	5
Fireworks	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
Natural	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
8 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
5 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
3 September 2017	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
29 September 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
19 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
9 August 2016	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,866 shown

Museums hold 1,866 specimens collected within 10 miles of Lunenburg between 1870 and 1974: 1,134 Animalia, 467 Plantae, 199 Fungi, 49 Protozoa, 11 Unrecorded, 6 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Gibson, A. Ferrett 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
Exidia glandulosa (Bull.) Fr.	1896	F. O. Grover	Prospect Hill
Carex maritima Gunnerus	1870	J. W. Congdon	Wellville
Hylesinus aculeatus Say & T., 1824	1872	unknown	Fitchburg
Megascops asio asio (Linnaeus, 1758)	1879	Smith, J. C.; Thomas Wilmer Dewing collection	Groton
Papaver orientale L.	1880	unknown	Townsend.
Strix varia varia Barton, 1799	1880	Smith, J. C.; Thomas Wilmer Dewing collection	Groton
unnamed	1881	Sargent, F. L.	Groton, Mass. [Massachusetts]
Conocephalum conicum (L.) Underw.	1881	Charles W. Swan
Hypericum gentianoides (L.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.	1881	Fredrick L Sargent	Lunenburg
Nitella megacarpa (T.F.A.) R.D.W.	1881	T. F. Allen	Nashua River
Arthuriomyces peckianus (Howe) Cummins & Y.Hirats.	1892	W. B. Hosmer
Phyllosticta kalmicola (Schwein.) Ellis & Everh.	1894	H. L. Jones

All 1,866 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 11 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 11 workings within 5 miles of Lunenburg: 7 past producers, 2 producers, 1 occurrence, 1 unknown. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Tin, Lithium, Geothermal. 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
Fitchburg Area	Tin, Lithium	Occurrence
Leominster Pit	Geothermal	Past Producer
Keating Quarry & Mill	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Unknown
Keating Quarry and Mill	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Adams Excavating Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Harbor Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Luenburg Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
P J Keating	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Szocik Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Tanzio Road Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

16 since 1997

The National Weather Service names Lunenburg in 16 storm reports between 1997 and 2024: 12 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail. 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 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Lunenburg	$15,000	Several trees were downed throughout Lunenburg.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Lunenburg	$7,000	Trees on Townsend Harbor Road were downed by thunderstorm winds onto wires. Also, large branches were downed onto a car.
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Lunenburg	$6,000	In Lunenburg, a tree was down on cars on Cove Rd.
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Lunenburg	$5,000	A tree was downed across Route 13 near the Monadnock Golf Course.
August 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Lunenburg	$5,000	Two trees were downed onto wires by thunderstorm winds.
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Lunenburg	$5,000	no account filed
April 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Lunenburg	$2,000	no account filed
July 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Lunenburg	$1,000	At 6:25 PM EST, a tree was down across the access road in Pearl Hill State Park Campground, near Fitchburg.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Lunenburg	$1,000	A tree on Burrage Street was downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Lunenburg	$800	In Lunenburg, multiple trees and powerlines were downed.
May 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Lunenburg	$800	In Lunenburg, a tree was down on Route 2A. It was large enough that the DPW needed to come to remove it. Report was relayed by amateur radio.
March 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Lunenburg	$800	In Lunenburg, a tree and power lines were down on South Row Road.
July 2014	Hail	Lunenburg	-	Nickel size hail fell along Lancaster Avenue in Lunenburg.
July 2014	Hail	Lunenburg	-	Half dollar size hail fell in Lunenburg.
June 2009	Hail	Lunenburg	-	no account filed
July 1997	Hail	Lunenburg	-	no account filed

Every storm 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Goodrichville	1.2 miles	44
Whalom	1.8 miles	44
North Leominster	3.7 miles	44
South Fitchburg	3.7 miles	42
West Leominster	4.0 miles	42
Lunenburg Station	4.2 miles	44
Fitchburg	4.2 miles	42
Leominster	5.1 miles	42

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 Lunenburg	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q6704212	The 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 610772. 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.