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

North Oxford, Massachusetts

44 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1889 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Oxford town. It lies in ZIP code area 01540. It stands on Wellington Brook. The Survey maps it on the Worcester South quadrangle.

North Oxford within Worcester County

Then and now

1889 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 100 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 Oxford, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of North Oxford, surveyed 1889

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

50 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 50 fires within 5 miles of North Oxford between 2015 and 2020, burning about 22 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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 burning14
Missing data/not specified/undetermined11
Recreation and ceremony7
Railroad operations and maintenance6
Smoking6
Equipment and vehicle use3
Arson/incendiarism2
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
25 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
15 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
15 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 August 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
26 August 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
9 July 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 July 2016Debris and open burning1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 June 2020Railroad operations and maintenanceunder 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 1,719 shown

Museums hold 1,719 specimens collected within 10 miles of North Oxford between 1839 and 1974: 966 Plantae, 472 Animalia, 247 Fungi, 17 Unrecorded, 13 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
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 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
A photograph of the species Carex aperta, not of this specimenCarex aperta Boott1853W. BoottMassachusetts
Elymus repens (L.) Gould1892Arthur B. SeymourCambridge.
Festuca pratensis Huds.1892Arthur B. SeymourCambridge.
Hepatica americana (DC.) Ker Gawl.1892Clarence Kinney
Leucobryum vulgare Hampe1892unknown

All 1,719 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 20 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 20 workings within 5 miles of North Oxford: 16 past producers, 3 producers, 1 plant. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Iron. 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
Crucible Spec. Metals--Auburn, Ma.IronPlant
Auburn PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Charlton PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Crossover PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Donald P Graves Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Highway PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Highway PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Lind PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Old Webster Road PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Oxford PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working 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
Camp Barton1.5 miles42
Texas1.6 miles42
Oxford Heights1.7 miles42
West Auburn1.8 miles44
Hodges Village2.3 miles42
Oxford2.3 miles43
Buffumville2.7 miles42
Cominsville2.9 miles42

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 Q122543388The 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 610661. 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.