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

Owen District, Massachusetts

43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1998. It stands in Westfield City. It lies in ZIP code area 01085. The Survey maps it on the Mount Tom quadrangle.

Owen District within Hampden County

Then and now

1886 to 1998

The same ground, surveyed 112 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Owen District, surveyed 1998
Topographic sheet of Owen District, surveyed 1886

Compare 1886 against another survey:

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

290 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 290 fires within 5 miles of Owen District between 2015 and 2020, burning about 150 acres in total. 24 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined121
Equipment and vehicle use110
Natural24
Recreation and ceremony16
Debris and open burning13
Smoking5
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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
9 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 2018Natural2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
28 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
17 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
15 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
14 September 2016Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
13 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hampden County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,706 shown

Museums hold 1,706 specimens collected within 10 miles of Owen District between 1831 and 1975: 654 Animalia, 591 Plantae, 411 Fungi, 34 Chromista, 12 Unrecorded, 4 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. Albee, A. B. Seymour, A. B. Seymour; S. 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 Lycopodiella inundata (L.) HolubLycopodiella inundata (L.) Holub1892ChapmanSouthhampton
Specimen of Sphagnum recurvum P.Beauv.Sphagnum recurvum P.Beauv.1893Daniel C. Eaton
Specimen of Taphrina johansonii Sadeb.Taphrina johansonii Sadeb.1894W.G. Farlow
A photograph of the species Carex bromoides, not of this specimenCarex bromoides Willd.1831Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Carex vesicaria, not of this specimenCarex vesicaria L.1836Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Carex vestita, not of this specimenCarex vestita Willd.1836Collector unspecified
A photograph of the species Carex siccata, not of this specimenCarex siccata Dewey1844Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Amphicarpaea bracteata, not of this specimenAmphicarpaea bracteata (L.) Fernald1845Collector unspecified
A photograph of the species Galeopsis tetrahit, not of this specimenGaleopsis tetrahit L.1845not recorded
A photograph of the species Meleagris gallopavo, not of this specimenMeleagris gallopavo silvestris Vieillot, 18171847William D. WhitneyMount Tom
A photograph of the species Alopecurus geniculatus, not of this specimenAlopecurus geniculatus L.1850not recorded
A photograph of the species Lactuca hirsuta, not of this specimenLactuca hirsuta Muhl. ex Nutt.1850Collector unspecified

All 1,706 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 32 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 32 workings within 5 miles of Owen District: 17 past producers, 11 producers, 4 occurrences. 11 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Brick Clay, Clay. 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
Macia Emery MineEmeryOccurrenceEmery
Southampton AreaZinc, Lead, VanadiumOccurrenceDescloizite, Vanadinite
W. New England Smelting Works IncCopperProducer
Sandstone QuarryStone, DimensionProducerSandstone
Sandstone QuarryFlagstonePast Producer
Sandstone QuarryStone, DimensionProducer
Sandstone QuarryFlagstonePast Producer
Clay PitBrick ClayProducerClay
Clay PitBrick ClayProducerClay
Clay PitBrick ClayProducerClay

Every working recorded in Hampden 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
Hampton Ponds1.8 miles43
Rock Valley2.5 miles43
Amostown2.8 miles43
Springfield Hill2.8 miles48
Ashleyville3.0 miles43
Brightside3.0 miles43
Ingleside3.2 miles43
Paucatuck (historical)3.3 miles48

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 Q122552346The 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 1978332. 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.