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

Packard Heights, Massachusetts

36 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Orange town. It lies in ZIP code area 01364. It stands on Little Tully Mountain. The Survey maps it on the Royalston quadrangle.

Packard Heights within Franklin County

Then and now

1887 to 1988

The same ground, surveyed 101 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Packard Heights, surveyed 1988
Topographic sheet of Packard Heights, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

36 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

13 since 2004

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 13 fires within 5 miles of Packard Heights between 2004 and 2020, burning about 7 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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 burning7
Smoking2
Equipment and vehicle use1
Recreation and ceremony1
Fireworks1
Arson/incendiarism1

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
28 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
10 August 2020Fireworks1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlTULLY MT FIRE
14 June 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 May 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 May 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 May 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
17 May 2015Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
10 May 2020Smokingunder 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 148 shown

Museums hold 148 specimens collected within 10 miles of Packard Heights between 1856 and 1974: 61 Fungi, 53 Animalia, 34 Plantae. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. M. Ottley, A. S. Goodale, S.F. Potsubay, F.R. St. John, A. S. Goodale, W.C. Markert 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
A photograph of the species Pyxine sorediata, not of this specimenPyxine sorediata (Ach.) Mont.1856Charles C. Frost
A photograph of the species Teucrium canadense, not of this specimenTeucrium canadense var. canadense1873not recorded
A photograph of the species Hypopitys monotropa, not of this specimenHypopitys monotropa Crantz1909not recorded
A photograph of the species Melanoleuca melaleuca, not of this specimenMelanoleuca melaleuca (Pers.) Murrill1909O. HillOrange
A photograph of the species Salix sericea, not of this specimenSalix sericea Marshall1912F. W. HunnewellThicket by roadside, Orange.
A photograph of the species Ranunculus ambigens, not of this specimenRanunculus ambigens S.Watson1913C. SchweinfurthOn Orange Street.
A photograph of the species Gymnosporangium clavariiforme, not of this specimenGymnosporangium clavariiforme (Wulfen) DC.1915Orton, C. R.Athol
Microsphaera alni (DC.) G.Winter1919Orton, C. R.Athol
A photograph of the species Caliciopsis pinea, not of this specimenCaliciopsis pinea Peck1928Hansbrough J. R.Athol
A photograph of the species Catostomus commersonii, not of this specimenCatostomus commersonii (Lacepède, 1803)1928CL & LC HubbsTrib. of Miller's River, South Athol, NW border of Worcester Co., below a dam-pond, above res.; Connecticut system
A photograph of the species Corticium confluens, not of this specimenCorticium confluens (Fr.) Fr.1928Hansbrough J. R.Athol
A photograph of the species Diatrype stigma, not of this specimenDiatrype stigma (Hoffm.) Fr.1928Hansbrough J. R.Athol

All 148 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 16 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 16 workings within 5 miles of Packard Heights: 7 occurrences, 4 past producers, 3 prospects, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Mica, Mica, Feldspar, Feldspar. 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
Town PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Orange Mica MineMica, FeldsparOccurrence1940
Orange Mica MineMica, FeldsparOccurrence
Pegmatite QuarryMica, FeldsparPast Producer
Pegmetite QuarryMica, FeldsparProducerFeldspar, Mica
Talc QuarryTalc-SoapstoneProducerMetamorphic
Talc QuarryTalc-SoapstonePast Producer
Pegmatite OccurrenceMicaOccurrenceMica
Pegmatite OccurrenceMicaOccurrence
Johnson Iron MineIronPast Producer

Every working 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
Tully1.0 miles36
North Orange1.7 miles34
Blissville3.6 miles34
Orange5.2 miles32
Mayo Corners5.5 miles34
West Orange6.4 miles32
Camp Warwick6.5 miles34
Warwick6.7 miles34

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 Q122572803The 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 609687. 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.