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

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.

Oakham within Worcester County

Then and now

1887 to 1985

The 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 sheet of Oakham, surveyed 1985
Topographic sheet of Oakham, surveyed 1887

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

38 since 2015

The 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 burning21
Recreation and ceremony9
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Arson/incendiarism2
Misuse of fire by a minor1
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
4 August 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 August 2017Debris and open burningunder 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 ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 July 2016Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
28 July 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
28 July 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 July 2016Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 595 shown

Museums 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 SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
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 Aquilegia canadensis, not of this specimenAquilegia canadensis L.1894H. E. GreenwoodHolden
A photograph of the species Chrysosplenium americanum, not of this specimenChrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook.1894H. E. Greenwood
Nitella megacarpa (T.F.A.) R.D.W.1894G. E. SternLake Lashaway
Viola rotundifolia Michx.1894H. E. Greenwood

All 595 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

2 within 5 miles

The 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Highway PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Landfill PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

8 since 1997

The 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 1997LightningOakham4 hurtno account filed
September 2016Thunderstorm WindOakham$15,000Trees downed on multiple streets throughout Oakham.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindOakham$5,000Trees and wires on Scott Road were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2021Thunderstorm WindOakham$1,000In Oakham, a large tree was down on North Brookfield Road.
August 2020Thunderstorm WindOakham$800In Oakham, a tree and wires were down on Spencer Rd.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindOakham$800In Oakham, trees were down on wires on Lincoln Road.
May 2025Thunderstorm WindOakham-In Oakham, two trees were down near Scott Rd.
August 2024HailOakham-In Oakham, 1 inch hail fell.

Every storm 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
Coldbrook Springs2.9 miles31
White Hall2.9 miles42
Smithville2.9 miles31
West Rutland3.1 miles42
White Valley3.2 miles31
South Barre3.5 miles31
Barre Plains3.8 miles31
New Boston4.4 miles46

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.