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

North Ashburnham, Massachusetts

46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Ashburnham town. It lies in ZIP code area 01430. It stands on Bear Meadow Brook. The Survey maps it on the Ashburnham quadrangle.

North Ashburnham within Worcester County

Then and now

1887 to 1988

The same ground, surveyed 101 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of North Ashburnham, surveyed 1988
Topographic sheet of North Ashburnham, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

46 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

13 since 2012

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 13 fires within 5 miles of North Ashburnham between 2012 and 2020, burning about 9 acres in total. None 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 burning8
Recreation and ceremony3
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1

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
3 July 2016Recreation and ceremony4.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 June 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 June 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
20 May 2018Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
14 May 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
13 May 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
7 April 2012Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreNew Hampshire Division of Forest and Landsnot named
23 April 2018Recreation and ceremonyunder 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 509 shown

Museums hold 509 specimens collected within 10 miles of North Ashburnham between 1870 and 1973: 224 Plantae, 224 Animalia, 56 Fungi, 3 Protozoa, 1 Unrecorded, 1 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A., A. B. Seymour, 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 Carex maritima, not of this specimenCarex maritima Gunnerus1870J. W. CongdonWellville
A photograph of the species Veronica L., not of this specimenVeronica L.1871not recorded
A photograph of the species Hylesinus aculeatus, not of this specimenHylesinus aculeatus Say & T., 18241872unknownFitchburg
A photograph of the species Botrychium multifidum, not of this specimenBotrychium multifidum (S.G.Gmel.) Rupr.1882Manning, Sara M.Ashby
A photograph of the species Drosera rotundifolia, not of this specimenDrosera rotundifolia L.1882not recorded
A photograph of the species Linnaea borealis, not of this specimenLinnaea borealis subsp. longiflora (Torrey) Hultén1882not recorded
A photograph of the species Moneses uniflora, not of this specimenMoneses uniflora (L.) A.Gray1882M. A. M.Winchendon
A photograph of the species Polygala paucifolia, not of this specimenPolygala paucifolia Willd.1882M. A. M.
A photograph of the species Peltandra virginica, not of this specimenPeltandra virginica (L.) Schott1892A.
Rosa rubiginosa L.1892not recorded
Cylindrosporium chrysanthemi Ellis & Dearn.1895Seymour A. B.Fitchburg
Carex scoparia Schkuhr ex Willd.1896W. Deane

All 509 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

1 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of North Ashburnham: 1 past producer. None of them 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
Lost Lake PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

1 since 2025

The National Weather Service names North Ashburnham in 1 storm report between 2025 and 2025: 1 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
September 2025HailNorth Ashburnham-In Ashburnham, 1 inch hail fell.

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
Lane Village1.1 miles46
Wellville2.2 miles46
Old North Ashburnham Station2.5 miles46
Ashburnham3.3 miles46
Pequoig3.7 miles36
Camp Collier4.0 miles40
Winchendon Springs4.0 miles36
Glenallen4.4 miles36

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 Q122540740The 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 610110. 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.