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

North Shirley, Massachusetts

44 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Shirley town. It lies in ZIP code area 01464. It stands on Brattle Hill. The Survey maps it on the Shirley quadrangle.

North Shirley within Middlesex County

Then and now

1893 to 1988

The same ground, surveyed 95 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 Shirley, surveyed 1988
Topographic sheet of North Shirley, surveyed 1893

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.

In the 1908 county history

16,055 words on this township

The county history of 1908 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for the smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The chapter on Shirley Town covers the township.

Read the chapter on Shirley Town - 16,055 words.

Fires nearby

51 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 51 fires within 5 miles of North Shirley between 2015 and 2020, burning about 21 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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 burning26
Missing data/not specified/undetermined17
Recreation and ceremony5
Arson/incendiarism1
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
29 September 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
26 September 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
18 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 July 2016Recreation and ceremony1.3 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlANDOVER
8 June 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
26 June 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
10 June 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
9 May 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 357 shown

Museums hold 357 specimens collected within 10 miles of North Shirley between 1900 and 1974: 229 Animalia, 64 Plantae, 35 Protozoa, 25 Fungi, 4 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. Gibson, A. K. Moore, B. G. Schubert, C.E. Wood Jr. 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 Pholiota carbonaria, not of this specimenPholiota carbonaria (Fr.) Singer1900H. WebsterGroton.
unnamed1926F.A. Gilbert
A photograph of the species Adoxophyes furcatana, not of this specimenAdoxophyes furcatana (Walker, 1863)1926not recordedLancaster
A photograph of the species Anavitrinella pampinaria, not of this specimenAnavitrinella pampinaria (Guenée, 1857)1926not recordedLunenburg
A photograph of the species Arcyria cinerea, not of this specimenArcyria cinerea (Bull.) Pers., 18011926Collector unspecified
A photograph of the species Alopecurus aequalis, not of this specimenAlopecurus aequalis Sobol.1930M. L. Fernald; C. A. Weatherby
A photograph of the species Cistothorus stellaris, not of this specimenCistothorus stellaris (J.F.Naumann, 1823)1930Collector(s): James Lee PetersHarvard
A photograph of the species Colaptes auratus, not of this specimenColaptes auratus luteus Bangs, 18981930Collector(s): James Lee PetersHarvard
A photograph of the species Epitheca cynosura, not of this specimenEpitheca cynosura (Say, 1840)1930Davis, E. M.MA, Middlesex Co., Shirley
A photograph of the species Hemaris thysbe, not of this specimenHemaris thysbe Fabricius, 17751930not recordedLunenburg
A photograph of the species Lanius ludovicianus, not of this specimenLanius ludovicianus migrans W.Palmer, 18981930Collector(s): James Lee PetersHarvard
A photograph of the species Molothrus ater, not of this specimenMolothrus ater ater (Boddaert, 1783)1930Collector(s): James Lee PetersHarvard

All 357 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

8 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of North Shirley: 6 past producers, 1 unknown, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Keating Quarry & MillStone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown
Keating Quarry and MillStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Adams Excavating CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Harbor PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Hazen PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Joy Contracting TcSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Shirley PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Szocik PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms nearby

3 since 2020

The National Weather Service names North Shirley in 3 storm reports between 2020 and 2025: 3 thunderstorm wind. The reports record 5 injuries. 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 2020Thunderstorm WindNorth Shirley5 hurt, $2,000The Devens Fire Chief reported five injuries from Fort Devens when a military-grade tent was lifted up and blown down an embankment by thunderstorm winds. It occurred during a training exercise. Five people were taken to the hospital, treated, and released. Four of the injuries were minor, but one trainee, who was holding onto the tent, was also lifted up and blown 40 feet down the embankment, and received a concussion.
June 2025Thunderstorm WindNorth Shirley$5,000In Shirley, broadcast media sent aerial photos of around a dozen trees uprooted or snapped off at the top laying in the same direction on Walker Rd.
August 2024Thunderstorm WindNorth Shirley$200In Ayer, a tree was down on wires on Douglas St.

Every storm recorded in Middlesex 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
Shirley Center0.9 miles44
Woodsville1.4 miles41
West Groton1.7 miles44
Vose2.1 miles44
Shirley2.8 miles44
Ayer3.4 miles41
Shaker Village3.8 miles44
Paper Mill Village4.0 miles39

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 Q122570397The 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 610777. 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.