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

Matfield, Massachusetts

37 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1984. It stands in West Bridgewater town. It lies in ZIP code area 02379. It stands on Edson Brook. The Survey maps it on the Whitman quadrangle.

Matfield within Plymouth County

Then and now

1885 to 1984

The same ground, surveyed 99 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Matfield, surveyed 1984
Topographic sheet of Matfield, surveyed 1885

Topographic sheets covering this place

37 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

412 since 2004

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 412 fires within 5 miles of Matfield between 2004 and 2020, burning about 178 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 10 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 burning205
Missing data/not specified/undetermined138
Misuse of fire by a minor33
Smoking13
Arson/incendiarism10
Recreation and ceremony8
Natural5

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
9 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBROCKTON
9 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBROCKTON
8 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBROCKTON
8 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlABINGTON
7 September 2015Naturalunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBROCKTON
7 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBROCKTON
6 September 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
6 September 2017Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Plymouth County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 501 shown

Museums hold 501 specimens collected within 10 miles of Matfield between 1857 and 1975: 209 Fungi, 159 Plantae, 131 Animalia, 1 Protozoa, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. A. Eaton, A. B. Seymour, A. Grimell 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 Chamberlainia salebrosa, not of this specimenChamberlainia salebrosa (Hoffm. ex F.Weber & D.Mohr) H.Rob.1857T. P. JamesRandolph
A photograph of the species Dichelyma capillaceum, not of this specimenDichelyma capillaceum (Dicks.) Myrin1878PiperEast Bridgewater
A photograph of the species Setophaga discolor, not of this specimenSetophaga discolor discolor (Vieillot, 1809)1880C. T. Snow
A photograph of the species Thelia hirtella, not of this specimenThelia hirtella (Hedw.) Sull.1880Mrs. Piper
A photograph of the species Fontinalis novae-angliae, not of this specimenFontinalis novae-angliae Sull.1883C. G. Pringle; Mrs. Piper
A photograph of the species Phyllactinia guttata, not of this specimenPhyllactinia guttata (Wallr.) Lév.1883A. B. Seymour
A photograph of the species Dendroica petechia, not of this specimenDendroica petechia aestiva (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)1899Arthur C. DykeBridgewater
Glyceria fluitans (L.) R.Br.1899E. F. Williams
Lysimachia quadrifolia L.1899E. F. Williams
Resupinatus applicatus (Batsch) Gray1899M. V. ThayerHolbrook.
A photograph of the species Salix sericea, not of this specimenSalix sericea Marshall1899E. F. Williams
Tricholoma virgatum (Fr.) P.Kumm.1899M. V. Thayer

All 501 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

7 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Matfield: 6 past producers, 1 producer. 1 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Bridgewater Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Bridgewater Town PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Bridgewater Town PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Brockton PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Brockton Sand & Gravel Company PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Gerald Kelleher Pit and PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Gourdin PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Plymouth County

Storms nearby

1 since 2023

The National Weather Service names Matfield in 1 storm report between 2023 and 2023: 1 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2023Thunderstorm WindMatfield$1,000In West Bridgewater, trees and wires were down on Matfield St. A tree was down on Brewster Blvd.

Every storm recorded in Plymouth 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
Matfield Junction0.5 miles37
Matfield Corner0.7 miles39
West Bridgewater1.2 miles39
Westdale1.2 miles37
Brooks Place1.3 miles39
Bennetts Corner1.4 miles39
Beaver1.4 miles37
West Meadow1.7 miles39

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.

Wikidata item Q122544176The 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 613550. 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.