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

Paxton, Massachusetts

42 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Paxton town. It lies in ZIP code area 01612. It stands on Crocker Hill. The Survey maps it on the Paxton quadrangle.

Paxton within Worcester County

Then and now

1885 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 104 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Paxton, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Paxton, surveyed 1885

Topographic sheets covering this place

42 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

30 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 30 fires within 5 miles of Paxton between 2015 and 2020, burning about 28 acres in total. None 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
Debris and open burning17
Missing data/not specified/undetermined7
Recreation and ceremony4
Smoking2

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
14 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
1 September 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
1 September 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 August 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 August 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 June 2020Debris and open burning1.5 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
30 June 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 June 2020Debris and open burningunder 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 1,610 shown

Museums hold 1,610 specimens collected within 10 miles of Paxton between 1839 and 1974: 988 Plantae, 318 Animalia, 282 Fungi, 16 Unrecorded, 4 Protozoa, 2 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A E WOODHEAD, A. A. Eaton, A. B. Seymour 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 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 Tamias striatus, not of this specimenTamias striatus lysteri (Richardson, 1829)1848L AgassizPARSONS ISLAND
A photograph of the species Cladonia cornucopioides, not of this specimenCladonia cornucopioides F.Wilson1850J. L. RussellLeicester
A photograph of the species Geranium maculatum, not of this specimenGeranium maculatum L.1850not recorded
A photograph of the species Packera aurea, not of this specimenPackera aurea (L.) Á.Löve & D.Löve1850not recorded
Elymus repens (L.) Gould1892Arthur B. SeymourCambridge.
Festuca pratensis Huds.1892Arthur B. SeymourCambridge.
Hepatica americana (DC.) Ker Gawl.1892Clarence Kinney

All 1,610 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

6 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Paxton: 4 past producers, 1 unknown, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Holden Trap RockStone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown
Elmwood Street PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Highway PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Intervale PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Trulson PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Wachusetts PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

4 since 2010

The National Weather Service names Paxton in 4 storm reports between 2010 and 2025: 2 hail, 2 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. 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
September 2025Tornado (EF0)Paxton$10,000A tornado briefly touched down near Arrowhead drive in Paxton, crossing Richards Ave and likely lifting after causing significant tree damage in its path. Several softwood trees|snapped at the trunk or uprooted.
September 2025Tornado (EF0)Paxton$4,000A tornado briefly touched down near a section of South Rd in Holden, MA. Damage was limited to several softwood trees being uprooted.
September 2010HailPaxton-Quarter size hail fell on South Road.
May 2014HailPaxton-no account filed

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
Sandy Beach2.1 miles42
Turkey Hill Shores2.3 miles42
North Spencer3.1 miles42
Lambs Grove3.3 miles42
West Tatnuck3.6 miles45
Camp Kinneywood3.6 miles45
Upper Wire Village3.7 miles42
Tafts Corner4.1 miles42

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 610250. 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.