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

North Sunderland, Massachusetts

32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1890 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Sunderland town. It lies in ZIP code area 01375. It stands on Gunn Brook. The Survey maps it on the Greenfield quadrangle.

North Sunderland within Franklin County

Then and now

1890 to 1990

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 Sunderland, surveyed 1990
Topographic sheet of North Sunderland, surveyed 1890

Topographic sheets covering this place

32 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

41 since 2002

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 41 fires within 5 miles of North Sunderland between 2002 and 2020, burning about 94 acres in total. 1 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 burning20
Recreation and ceremony8
Railroad operations and maintenance5
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Natural1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
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
19 August 2002Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
18 August 2002Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
17 August 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
1 August 2017Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
29 June 2002Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
25 June 2020Natural56 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlJOSHUA HILL FIRE
21 May 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined20 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMATHEWS RIDGE FIRE
2 May 2018Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Franklin County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 9,851 shown

Museums hold 9,851 specimens collected within 10 miles of North Sunderland between 1781 and 1975: 3,900 Animalia, 3,204 Plantae, 2,407 Fungi, 127 Chromista, 123 Unrecorded, 90 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A S Pease, A V Osmun, A. Allen 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 Cercospora violae Sacc.Cercospora violae Sacc.1895Ralph E. SmithHothouse, Mass. Agr. College, Amherst
Specimen of Septoria petroselini Desm.Septoria petroselini Desm.1895R. E. SmithHothouse, Mass. Agr. College
Specimen of Bombus bimaculatus Cresson, 1863Bombus bimaculatus Cresson, 18631899[Not Stated]Hatch Experiment Station
A photograph of the species Carex argyrantha, not of this specimenCarex argyrantha Tuck. ex Dewey1781H. G. JesupAmherst in Hampshire Co., and Leverett in Franklin Co., Massachusetts. [Inferred counties from precise loc.]
A photograph of the species Carex foenea, not of this specimenCarex foenea Willd.1781H. G. JesupAnd Leverett
A photograph of the species Ustilago nuda, not of this specimenUstilago nuda (C.N.Jensen) Kellerm. & Swingle1810J.E. Humphrey
A photograph of the species Ptilidium pulcherrimum, not of this specimenPtilidium pulcherrimum (Weber) Hampe1822Ebenezer Emmons
A photograph of the species Ranunculus ambigens, not of this specimenRanunculus ambigens S.Watson1831S. Shurtleff
A photograph of the species Dactylis glomerata, not of this specimenDactylis glomerata L.1839S J Ewer
A photograph of the species Solidago arguta, not of this specimenSolidago arguta Aiton1841Collector(s): Henry Holmes Babcock, Henry Griswold JesupAmherst
A photograph of the species Phlebiella vaga, not of this specimenPhlebiella vaga (Fr.) P.Karst.1845Illegible collector name
A photograph of the species Cinna latifolia, not of this specimenCinna latifolia (Trevir. ex Göpp.) Griseb.1847Russell

All 9,851 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 12 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 12 workings within 5 miles of North Sunderland: 7 past producers, 2 occurrences, 2 producers, 1 unknown. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Barium-Barite, Lead. 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
Leverett Lead MinesLead, Copper, Barium-Barite, Silver, ZincPast ProducerBarite, Chalcopyrite, Galena, Sphalerite
Leverett Lead MinesCopper, Lead, Zinc, SilverPast Producer
Leverett ProspectsBarium-Barite, Copper, Lead, ZincPast Producer
Leverett Lead MineLead, CopperPast ProducerVein
Southwest Deerfield Barite OccurrenBarium-BariteOccurrence
Southwest Deerfield Barite Vein OccurrenceBarium-BariteOccurrenceBarite
East Deerfield Quarry and MillStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Sunderland Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Sunderland Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Sunderland Pit Warner BrosSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Franklin County

Storms nearby

4 since 2013

The National Weather Service names North Sunderland in 4 storm reports between 2013 and 2025: 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash 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
June 2017Thunderstorm WindNorth Sunderland$2,000At 615 PM EST, a tree was reported down on wires at the junction of Meadow Road and Old Sunderland Road in Montague.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindNorth Sunderland$1,000In Deerfield, two trees were down on River Road, north of Hillside Road.
September 2025Thunderstorm WindNorth Sunderland$800In South Deerfield, a tree and wires were down on River Rd.
July 2013Flash FloodNorth Sunderland-Montague City Road in Montague was closed due to flooding. Briggs Brook overflowed its banks in Erving, flooding Farley Road and the Farley Ridge area on the Erving/Millers Falls Town line.

Every storm recorded in Franklin 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
Montague2.5 miles32
Sunderland2.8 miles42
Montague Station3.0 miles32
Wapping3.0 miles32
South Deerfield3.2 miles42
North Leverett3.5 miles32
Deerfield3.8 miles32
Leverett Station4.1 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 Q55174817The 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 608910. 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.