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

North Salem, Massachusetts

42 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Salem City. It lies in ZIP code area 01970. It stands on Ledge Hill. The Survey maps it on the Salem quadrangle.

North Salem within Essex County

Then and now

1888 to 1985

The same ground, surveyed 97 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 Salem, surveyed 1985
Topographic sheet of North Salem, surveyed 1888

Topographic sheets covering this place

42 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

65 since 2006

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 65 fires within 5 miles of North Salem between 2006 and 2020, burning about 188 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 3 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
Recreation and ceremony22
Smoking10
Equipment and vehicle use7
Debris and open burning6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined5
Misuse of fire by a minor4
Arson/incendiarism3
Fireworks3
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Natural1
Railroad operations and maintenance1
Other causes1

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
5 September 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBEVERLY
4 September 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBEVERLY
27 September 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 September 2020Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
17 September 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlPEABODY
12 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlDANVERS

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Essex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 9,320 shown

Museums hold 9,320 specimens collected within 10 miles of North Salem between 1800 and 1975: 3,823 Plantae, 2,903 Animalia, 1,047 Fungi, 896 Chromista, 452 Unrecorded, 151 Bacteria, 48 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A B. Proper, A H HIGGINSON, A. A. Eaton 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 Rhodocollybia prolixa, not of this specimenRhodocollybia prolixa var. distorta (Fr.) Antonín, Halling & Noordel.1800R. B. MackintoshPeabody
Erysiphaceae1803A. B. Seymour
A photograph of the species Brasenia schreberi, not of this specimenBrasenia schreberi J.F.Gmel.1821not recordedPleasant Pond, Wenham, Mass.
A photograph of the species Lecanora tartarea, not of this specimenLecanora tartarea (L.) Ach.1839E. TuckermanManchester
A photograph of the species Ochrolechia yasudae, not of this specimenOchrolechia yasudae Vainio1839Tuckerman, E.[USA] Manchester, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Desmarestia viridis, not of this specimenDesmarestia viridis (O.F.Müll.) J.V.Lamour.1841C. E. PeaseMarblehead
A photograph of the species Polysiphonia urceolata, not of this specimenPolysiphonia urceolata (Lightfoot ex Dillwyn) Greville1841F. S. CollinsRevere Beach, Revere, MA
A photograph of the species Splachnum ampullaceum, not of this specimenSplachnum ampullaceum Hedw.1843A. Gray; W. S. SullivantManchester
A photograph of the species Carex caryophyllea, not of this specimenCarex caryophyllea Latourr.1847C. DeweySalem
A photograph of the species Carex muhlenbergii, not of this specimenCarex muhlenbergii Kunth ex Boott1847F. M. B. Boott
A photograph of the species Ceramium rubrum, not of this specimenCeramium rubrum C.Agardh1848E. Hodges
A photograph of the species Cladophora rupestris, not of this specimenCladophora rupestris (L.) Kütz.1848H. W. W. BaileyLittle Nahant, MA

All 9,320 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 11 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 11 workings within 5 miles of North Salem: 5 plants, 2 producers, 2 past producers, 1 unknown. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Zirconium, Iron, 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
(Facility) Travers Labs Refinery--Beverly, Ma.Mercury, Silver, Gold, REEPlant
Donald Innis IncSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Hale Engineering Co--Danvers, Ma.TungstenPlant
Saugus DepositIronOccurrence
Thiokol Ventron Div--Danvers, Ma.ThoriumPlant
Thiokol Ventron Div--Beverly, Ma.ZirconiumPlant
Ventron Corp--Beverly, Ma.ZirconiumPast Producer
Danvers QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Swampscott PlantStone, Crushed/BrokenPlant
Swampscott QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown

Every working recorded in Essex County

Storms nearby

3 since 2011

The National Weather Service names North Salem in 3 storm reports between 2011 and 2023: 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash flood, 1 flood. 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
October 2011Flash FloodNorth Salem$2,500,000Numerous streets were closed due to flooding. In addition, numerous vehicles were reported stuck in water on roads throughout Peabody; occupants had to be rescued and vehicles towed. Parts of Route 128 were impassable due to flooding. The Peabody police station was flooded, damaging training rooms, telephones, three police cruisers, and two motorcycles. Several houses were flooded near the intersection of Washington and Granite Streets. The Lahey Clinic was flooded with 4 to 6 feet of water in the basement and several inches of water in the 1st floor hallways. The fire chief estimated that at least 100 houses and 40 businesses were damaged. In addition, at least 100 basements throughout town were flooded. Flooding was extensive enough that schools were closed.
October 2011Thunderstorm WindNorth Salem$10,000A tree was downed onto a house on North Street by thunderstorm winds.
July 2023FloodNorth Salem-In Salem, Pearl St bridge was closed due to flooding.

Every storm recorded in Essex 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
Salem0.7 miles42
South Salem1.2 miles42
Peabody1.3 miles42
Rial Side1.7 miles42
Danversport1.7 miles42
Salem Neck2.0 miles40
West Town Landing2.2 miles40
Needham Corner2.4 miles42

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 614300. 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.