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

Orchard Hills Estates, Massachusetts

43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1889 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Oxford town. It lies in ZIP code area 01540. It stands on Fort Hill. The Survey maps it on the Oxford quadrangle.

Orchard Hills Estates within Worcester County

Then and now

1889 to 1989

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 Orchard Hills Estates, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Orchard Hills Estates, surveyed 1889

Topographic sheets covering this place

43 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 2007

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 65 fires within 5 miles of Orchard Hills Estates between 2007 and 2020, burning about 34 acres in total. None started naturally. 5 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined12
Recreation and ceremony11
Railroad operations and maintenance6
Smoking6
Arson/incendiarism5
Equipment and vehicle use2
Power generation/transmission/distribution2

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
8 September 2015Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
25 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
15 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
15 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
9 August 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 August 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
31 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 August 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts 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 1,098 shown

Museums hold 1,098 specimens collected within 10 miles of Orchard Hills Estates between 1839 and 1974: 620 Plantae, 294 Animalia, 156 Fungi, 12 Unrecorded, 12 Protozoa, 4 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. A. Eaton, A. B. Seymour, A. B. Seymour et al. 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 Chilonectria coryli (Fuckel) Ellis & Everh.Chilonectria coryli (Fuckel) Ellis & Everh.1896Henderson
Specimen of Coryneum pulvinatum KunzeCoryneum pulvinatum Kunze1897D. Murray
A photograph of the species Ochrolechia tartarea, not of this specimenOchrolechia tartarea (L.) A.Massal.1839E. Tuckerman
A photograph of the species Carex laxiflora, not of this specimenCarex laxiflora Lam.1840Thomas NuttallCambridge.
A photograph of the species Carex vestita, not of this specimenCarex vestita Willd.1840Thomas NuttallCambridge.
A photograph of the species Mycobilimbia hypnorum, not of this specimenMycobilimbia hypnorum (Lib.) Kalb & Hafellner1848E. Tuckerman
A photograph of the species Carex aperta, not of this specimenCarex aperta Boott1853W. BoottMassachusetts
A photograph of the species Cladrastis tinctoria, not of this specimenCladrastis tinctoria Raf.1856AnonymousCambridge.
Opegrapha varia Pers.1856E. Tuckerman
A photograph of the species Hyla versicolor, not of this specimenHyla versicolor LeConte, 18251857Weinland, David Friedrich
A photograph of the species Coleataenia rigidula, not of this specimenColeataenia rigidula (Bosc ex Nees) LeBlond1858AnonymousCambridge.
Elymus repens (L.) Gould1892Arthur B. SeymourCambridge.

All 1,098 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 15 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 15 workings within 5 miles of Orchard Hills Estates: 12 past producers, 3 producers. 3 still produce. 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
Charlton PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Highway PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Lind PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Old Webster Road PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Oxford PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Oxford Quarry Plant #8Sand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Ricciardi Asphalt CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Robbins Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Scavone Construction CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Scavone Construction CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary

Every working 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
Oxford1.6 miles43
West Sutton2.0 miles43
Hodges Village2.5 miles42
West Oxford2.7 miles42
North Oxford3.4 miles44
Buffumville3.4 miles42
Grand View Estates3.4 miles42
East Village3.5 miles43

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 Q122562889The 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 1980204. 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.