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

Millis, Massachusetts

43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Millis town. It lies in ZIP code area 02054. It stands on South Island. The Survey maps it on the Medfield quadrangle.

Millis within Norfolk County

Then and now

1887 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 102 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Millis, surveyed 1989

Topographic sheet of Millis, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

43 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

92 since 2007

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 92 fires within 5 miles of Millis between 2007 and 2020, burning about 49 acres in total. 3 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	36
Debris and open burning	26
Recreation and ceremony	20
Power generation/transmission/distribution	4
Natural	3
Smoking	1
Arson/incendiarism	1
Fireworks	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
9 September 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
26 September 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
25 September 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	MEDFIELD
22 September 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
11 September 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	NORFOLK
11 September 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	MEDWAY
10 September 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	MEDWAY
10 September 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	MEDWAY

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Norfolk County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 7,277 shown

Museums hold 7,277 specimens collected within 10 miles of Millis between 1832 and 1975: 4,094 Animalia, 1,517 Fungi, 1,507 Plantae, 97 Protozoa, 33 Chromista, 28 Unrecorded, 1 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A Herz, 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.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Hypoprepia fucosa Hübner, 1831	1900	not recorded	Sherborn
Bartramia pomiformis Hedw.	1832	C. E. Cummings
Dichanthelium acuminatum var. acuminatum	1849	Ernest Charles Smith	Framingham.
Ameiurus nebulosus (Lesueur, 1819)	1852	S. Baird	Framingham, Massachusetts.
Boleosoma fusiforme Girard, 1854	1852	S. Baird	Framingham, Massachusetts.
Pristiphora Latreille, 1810	1856	not recorded
Grammia arge Drury, 1773	1867	not recorded	Sherborn
Polygonum coccineum Muhl. ex Willd.	1869	Morong, T.	Natick
Carex swanii (Fernald) Mack.	1870	Joseph Blake	Sharon
Chamaecyparis thyoides (L.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.	1870	Joseph Blake	Sharon
Chantransia hermannii (Roth) Desvaux	1870	F. W. Dewart
Polytrichum piliferum Hedw.	1870	not recorded	South Framingham

All 7,277 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 21 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 21 workings within 5 miles of Millis: 12 past producers, 8 producers, 1 plant. 9 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Granite, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone. 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
Needham Pit	Stone	Past Producer
Bates Bros Quarry	Granite	Producer
Holliston Plant	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Plant
Simeone Stone Corp	Granite	Past Producer	Granite
Walpole Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Franklin Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Holliston Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Holliston Sand Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Irving Trucking Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Irving Trucking Company, Inc	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Norfolk County

Storms nearby

3 since 2001

The National Weather Service names Millis in 3 storm reports between 2001 and 2020: 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. 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
October 2020	Tornado (EF0)	Millis	$6,000	Based on information received from emergency management officials and based on Doppler radar imagery, the National Weather Service conducted a survey on Oct. 15 and was able to determine that a weak tornado circulation occurred in a small portion of the town of Millis, MA on October 7. It was embedded within the larger area of derecho/straight-line wind damages that occurred. It was on the ground for less than a minute, traveled about one-half mile, had a path width of only 50 yards, and estimated maximum wind speeds of 75 to 80 mph.\|\|The tornado began near Orchard Street, just to the west of Ridge Street, and traveled east-southeastward to the Oak Grove Playground/Millis Historical Commission on Exchange Street. On Orchard Street, the tops of a few large trees were sheared off. According to one resident, she had two trees down from west to east in her back yard, but she observed the wind change directions and the aforementioned tree tops were blown northward, landing in her yard. At the Oak Grove Playground, a large tree was downed from west to east but a metal lamp post was blown northwestward toward that tree. Other trees were observed down from as far west as Tupello Road to as far south as Causeway Street and Island Road. Damage reportedly went as far east as Environmental Drive, Larch Road, and Dwight Street, but that had since been cleaned up. Those damage areas likely were associated with the broader straight-line winds of the large-scale derecho that impacted much of Massachusetts, northeast Connecticut, and northern Rhode Island on October 7th.
July 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Millis	$1,000	A tree at the instersection of Village and Farm Streets was downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Millis	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Norfolk 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
Clicquot	0.4 miles	43
Rockville	1.9 miles	43
Crownridge Estates	2.4 miles	43
Medfield Junction	2.7 miles	43
Medway	2.7 miles	41
Medfield	3.1 miles	43
Harding	3.1 miles	43
Norfolk	3.7 miles	39

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 611957. 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.