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North Rutland, Massachusetts

46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Rutland town. It lies in ZIP code area 01543. It stands on Pommoqusset Brook. The Survey maps it on the Wachusett Mountain quadrangle.

North Rutland 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 North Rutland, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of North Rutland, surveyed 1885

Topographic sheets covering this place

21 surveys from 46 printed 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.

In the county-history sources

10,800 words on this township

History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889 names this settlement in its chapter on Rutland Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Nearly all kinds of wood common to New England are found here, - white and hard pine, chestnut, oak, hemlock, spruce, walnut, maple, birch of the various kinds, beech, elm, poplar, cedar, etc. It is estimated that there are more acres of woodland at the present time than there was fifty years ago, although that fact, however, cannot be fully determined, as there was no census taken of agricultural statistics as far back as 1840. The old primeval forests have nearly all succumbed to the " woodman's axe," and a new growth has taken its place. Many pastures have been allowed to run up to white pine, hard wood and white birch, which seems to be naturally characteristic to the soil. Some very valuable white or sap pine lots have grown within the past thirty or forty years. The greater part of the lumber manufactured is sawed from white pine into box-boards, which find a ready market in North Brookfield, Spencer and Worcester. Also quite a large quantity of such lumber is made into boxes by O. W. Roberts & Co., of North Rutland. A considerable quantity of chestnut is manufactured into railroad ties, which also find a ready sale and home market to the Boston and Maine Railroad at good prices. The woolen-mills aftbrd quite a market for cord-wood, as a large quantity is used for making steam-power to carry the machinery employed.

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889.

It enters this town near the angle where the monument marks the boundary of the three towns of Hubbardston, Princeton and Rutland, passing, through the intervale for a little more than a mile to North Rutland, affording there good water-power for several mills, the principal power being what was formerly called Bigelow's Mills, now owned by O. W. Roberts & Co., who have just rebuilt a good, substantial sawmill and box-shop on the old site, where a similar mill was destroyed by fire last July. On the stream about a quarter of a mile below is a saw-mill, owned by Addison Childs ; and just below this mill is a shoddy-mill, owned by M. R. Moulton.

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889.

The river follows the valley at the base of very abrupt hills to New Boston, a mile and one-half south of North Rutland, where there is another good waterpower, and a saw and shoddy-mill owned by Owen McGann. From this point it makes a complete horse-shoe in the next half-mile ; then flowing on into the town of Barre, near the junction of the three towns of Barre, Hubbardston and Rutland. The course of this river is very circuitous through this town, traversing a distance of nearly six miles and leaving the town within two and a half miles of the point of entrance.

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Rutland Town - it names this place 3 more 3 times.

Fires near this place

36 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 36 fires within 5 miles of North Rutland between 2015 and 2020, burning about 26 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 burning21
Missing data/not specified/undetermined7
Recreation and ceremony6
Equipment and vehicle use1
Smoking1

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
18 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
16 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
6 July 2016Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 July 2016Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
29 July 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
28 July 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 July 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
30 June 2018Debris and open burningunder 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 near this place

12 of 640 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 640 specimens collected within 10 miles of North Rutland between 1839 and 1974: 332 Plantae, 204 Animalia, 100 Fungi, 4 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. V. Schott, A.B. Seymour, Ahles, H.E. 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 Porella platyphylla (L.) Pfeiff.Porella platyphylla (L.) Pfeiff.1895James F. CollinsSouth spur, Mount Wachusett
Specimen of Athyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.ClausenAthyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.Clausen1900DavenportPine Hill; Medford
Specimen of Pooecetes gramineus gramineus (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)Pooecetes gramineus gramineus (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)1900Roscoe I. Giles
A photograph of the species Bartramia pomiformis, not of this specimenBartramia pomiformis Hedw.1839unknownBarre
A photograph of the species Carex gracillima, not of this specimenCarex gracillima Schwein.1839M. S. BebbBarre
A photograph of the species Carex intumescens, not of this specimenCarex intumescens Rudge1839M. S. BebbBarre
A photograph of the species Carex lacustris, not of this specimenCarex lacustris Willd.1839M. S. BebbBarre
A photograph of the species Carex stipata, not of this specimenCarex stipata Muhl. ex Willd.1839M. S. BebbBarre
A photograph of the species Cirsium arvense, not of this specimenCirsium arvense (L.) Scop.1839M. S. BebbBarre
A photograph of the species Cypripedium acaule, not of this specimenCypripedium acaule Aiton1839M. S. BebbBarre
A photograph of the species Moneses uniflora, not of this specimenMoneses uniflora (L.) A.Gray1893J. F. Collins
A photograph of the species Aquilegia canadensis, not of this specimenAquilegia canadensis L.1894H. E. GreenwoodHolden

All 640 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of North Rutland: 3 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Iron, Sulfur. 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
Hubbardston MineIron, SulfurPast Producer
Hubbardston PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Intervale 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
New Boston2.2 miles46
Barre Falls2.7 miles31
Princeton Station3.0 miles46
Hubbardston3.4 miles31
Muschopauge3.7 miles46
Hubbardston Station3.8 miles46
White Hall4.1 miles42
Brooks4.3 miles46

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 Q122539823The 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 610111. 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.