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

Morningdale, Massachusetts

45 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Boylston town. It lies in ZIP code area 01505. It stands on Poor Farm Brook. The Survey maps it on the Worcester North quadrangle.

Morningdale within Worcester County

Then and now

1885 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 104 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Morningdale, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Morningdale, surveyed 1885

Topographic sheets covering this place

45 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

55 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 55 fires within 5 miles of Morningdale between 2015 and 2020, burning about 39 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 burning25
Missing data/not specified/undetermined10
Smoking8
Arson/incendiarism7
Recreation and ceremony4
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
2 September 2016Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
18 September 2016Smoking3.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
25 August 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 August 2017Debris and open burning1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
13 August 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 July 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 July 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 July 2020Smokingunder 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 nearby

12 of 1,819 shown

Museums hold 1,819 specimens collected within 10 miles of Morningdale between 1839 and 1974: 1,030 Plantae, 513 Animalia, 250 Fungi, 16 Unrecorded, 6 Protozoa, 4 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 1,819 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 14 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 14 workings within 5 miles of Morningdale: 11 past producers, 2 producers, 1 plant. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, 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
Shrewsbury Trap RockStoneProducer
Baldarelli Bros. Sand & Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Baldarelli Brothers Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Capa CorporationSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
F Ang G Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
F and G PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Landfill PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Sewall PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

2 since 2011

The National Weather Service names Morningdale in 2 storm reports between 2011 and 2021: 1 flash flood, 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
September 2011Flash FloodMorningdale$100,000Cars were stuck in two feet of water at the intersection of Lamartine Street and Quinsigamond Avenue, the occupants were rescued by the fire department. Shrewsbury Street near Cristoforo Columbo Park, Roxbury, Grafton, and Millbury Streets were all flooded with at least one foot of water. Cars on Canton Street were stuck in floodwaters. Route 20 at Grafton Street was closed due to flooding. Route 148 in Oakham was closed between Ware Corner and Rutland Road due to flooding. Route 146 in Millbury was flooded with one foot of water at the Interstate 90 interchange. In addition, flooding occurred on the following small streams and rivers: the Ware River at Barre Plains and at Gibbs Crossing. No damage was reported with the flooding on these rivers.
July 2021Thunderstorm WindMorningdale$1,300In Boylston, a large tree was down on Main Street and Paul X Tivnan Drive. Also, a large branch was down Main Street and Belair Street.

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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Great Brook Valley0.9 miles45
Burncoat1.5 miles45
Beverly Road1.7 miles45
Greendale2.0 miles45
Summit2.2 miles45
Brittan Square2.5 miles45
Shrewsbury2.7 miles44
Fairlawn2.8 miles44

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 610515. 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.