Oakham, Massachusetts
32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Oakham town. It lies in ZIP code area 01068. It stands on Prospect Hill. The Survey maps it on the North Brookfield quadrangle.
Then and now
1887 to 1985The same ground, surveyed 98 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Topographic sheets covering this place
32 sheetsMatched 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.
- 1887 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
- 1889 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Barre quadrangle1:62500
- 1908 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000
- 1908 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000
- 1942 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000
- 1946 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:31680
- 1946 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:31680
- 1948 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1952 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:24000
- 1952 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:24000
- 1952 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:31680
- 1952 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:31680
- 1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:25000
- 1967 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:24000
- 1967 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:24000
- 1975 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:25000
- 1982 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:25000
- 1982 USGS North Brookfield quadrangle1:25000
- 1985 USGS Holyoke quadrangle1:100000
- 1985 USGS Holyoke quadrangle1:100000
Fires nearby
38 since 2015The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 38 fires within 5 miles of Oakham between 2015 and 2018, burning about 43 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 burning | 21 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 9 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Smoking | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 August 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 23 August 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 6 July 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 4 July 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 4 July 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 28 July 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 28 July 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 27 July 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Specimens collected nearby
12 of 595 shownMuseums hold 595 specimens collected within 10 miles of Oakham between 1839 and 1974: 259 Plantae, 246 Animalia, 88 Fungi, 2 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. V. Schott, A.B. Seymour, A.E. Daugherty and L. Babbitt 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 | Species | Year | Collected by | Where, as recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Pooecetes gramineus gramineus (J.F.Gmelin, 1789) | 1900 | Roscoe I. Giles | |
![]() | Bartramia pomiformis Hedw. | 1839 | unknown | Barre |
![]() | Carex gracillima Schwein. | 1839 | M. S. Bebb | Barre |
![]() | Carex intumescens Rudge | 1839 | M. S. Bebb | Barre |
![]() | Carex lacustris Willd. | 1839 | M. S. Bebb | Barre |
![]() | Carex stipata Muhl. ex Willd. | 1839 | M. S. Bebb | Barre |
![]() | Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop. | 1839 | M. S. Bebb | Barre |
![]() | Cypripedium acaule Aiton | 1839 | M. S. Bebb | Barre |
![]() | Aquilegia canadensis L. | 1894 | H. E. Greenwood | Holden |
![]() | Chrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook. | 1894 | H. E. Greenwood | |
| Nitella megacarpa (T.F.A.) R.D.W. | 1894 | G. E. Stern | Lake Lashaway | |
| Viola rotundifolia Michx. | 1894 | H. E. Greenwood |
All 595 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Mines and quarries nearby
2 within 5 milesThe federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Oakham: 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highway Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Landfill Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms nearby
8 since 1997The National Weather Service names Oakham in 8 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 6 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning, 1 hail. The reports record 4 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 1997 | Lightning | Oakham | 4 hurt | no account filed |
| September 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oakham | $15,000 | Trees downed on multiple streets throughout Oakham. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oakham | $5,000 | Trees and wires on Scott Road were downed by thunderstorm winds. |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oakham | $1,000 | In Oakham, a large tree was down on North Brookfield Road. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oakham | $800 | In Oakham, a tree and wires were down on Spencer Rd. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oakham | $800 | In Oakham, trees were down on wires on Lincoln Road. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oakham | - | In Oakham, two trees were down near Scott Rd. |
| August 2024 | Hail | Oakham | - | In Oakham, 1 inch hail fell. |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coldbrook Springs | 2.9 miles | 31 | |
| White Hall | 2.9 miles | 42 | |
| Smithville | 2.9 miles | 31 | |
| West Rutland | 3.1 miles | 42 | |
| White Valley | 3.2 miles | 31 | |
| South Barre | 3.5 miles | 31 | |
| Barre Plains | 3.8 miles | 31 | |
| New Boston | 4.4 miles | 46 |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 609952. 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.









































