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

Pelham, Massachusetts

35 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Pelham town. It lies in ZIP code area 01002. It stands on Pine Hill. The Survey maps it on the Shutesbury quadrangle.

Pelham within Hampshire County

Then and now

1887 to 1990

The same ground, surveyed 103 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Pelham, surveyed 1990

Topographic sheet of Pelham, surveyed 1887

Compare 1887 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

35 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.

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Pelham town, The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

From Geology of Old Hampshire County, Massachusetts : Comprising Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden Counties, published 1898 - Pelham Town

The Hadley Lake Drainage

The last of the considerable deposits (m t) at hig-h level on the eastern side of the valley dependent upon the obstructed drainage which attended the retreat of the ice occupies the long, narrow valley along the west border of the Belchertown quadrangle, which runs north by the village of Leverett, along Pond Brook, and past the entrance to "Rattlesnake Gutter," and extends south across the town line into Shutesbury, skirting Mount Boreas on the east and ending just south of this mountain, where, south of 42° 25', the north branch of Fort River, which occupies the lake's former outlet, passes into a canyon to reach the open valley above East Street village, in Amherst.

Read the rest of this passage

In the county-history sources

12,634 words on this township

Geology of Old Hampshire County, Massachusetts : Comprising Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden Counties, published 1898 names this settlement in its chapter on Pelham Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Fortunately the ditch for the main of the Amherst waterworks ran from the west across the flat where the ice rested at the entrance of the portal (Pelham City), giving a complete section of the semimorainic beds that rested on the ice with all their irregularity. It continued past the Orient, exposing the passage beds to the fine della sands, and, passing high up above the brook into the notch which this brook has cut into the portal or entrance terrace, it continued along its southern slope through the whole delta deposit and far out into the central portion of the basin. At first, and nearest the ice, the beds dipped west, and these may be "backset" beds, as Prof W. M. Davis would say,^ or may have taken this posture as a result of the melting of the ice beneath and their sinking westwardly. For the most part the beds dip strongly east into the basin and show that the current came from the west - that is, from the ice.

Passage source: Geology of Old Hampshire County, Massachusetts : Comprising Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden Counties, published 1898.

A. - At the first house in the west village of Pelham, about 320 feet above the sea level, the last trace of the highest bench of the Amherst basin (the Hadley Lake) disappeared, and through the village, eastward into the notch, the coarse till made the surface to the point where the Shutesbury road branches off, as has been described on page 581.

Passage source: Geology of Old Hampshire County, Massachusetts : Comprising Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden Counties, published 1898.

Following up Locks Brook into the mountains, we find high sands bordering it with every widening of the narrow valley at all levels until we reach the top of the hills and come upon the broad basin of finely sorted sands surrounding Locks Pond. These I have already connected with the line of sands which can be traced southward through Pelham to Palmer. It is clear, thus, that the ice retreated down this valley, but that its shape did not favor the formation of extended deposits, and its position as a deep transverse gorge extending quite across the block of hills between the Connecticut and Swift River valleys was such that it intercepted all southward currents so soon as it was free from ice, and it is curious to see how by de^dous ways it deposited its burden, now in the Leverett Lake, now in the broad delta at the south end of the Mount Toby Valley, now clogging up the northern end of the latter, while at the last it has contributed very little to the filling up of the Montague basin, into which it now enters from the mountains.

Passage source: Geology of Old Hampshire County, Massachusetts : Comprising Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden Counties, published 1898.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Pelham Town - it names this place 8 more 8 times.

Fires near this place

11 since 2004

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 11 fires within 5 miles of Pelham between 2004 and 2020, burning about 10 acres in total. 2 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/undetermined	5
Recreation and ceremony	3
Natural	2
Debris and open burning	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
23 July 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 July 2016	Natural	5.3 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
11 May 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 April 2019	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
21 April 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
19 April 2004	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
18 April 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
15 April 2015	Natural	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hampshire County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 8,229 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 8,229 specimens collected within 10 miles of Pelham between 1781 and 1975: 3,758 Animalia, 2,211 Plantae, 2,048 Fungi, 126 Chromista, 75 Protozoa, 11 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. Allen, A. B. Seymour, A. Buckman 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.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Cercospora violae Sacc.	1895	Ralph E. Smith	Hothouse, Mass. Agr. College, Amherst
Actias luna Linnaeus, 1758	1896	not recorded
Plathemis lydia (Drury, 1773)	1896	not recorded
Carex argyrantha Tuck. ex Dewey	1781	H. G. Jesup	Amherst in Hampshire Co., and Leverett in Franklin Co., Massachusetts. [Inferred counties from precise loc.]
Carex foenea Willd.	1781	H. G. Jesup	And Leverett
Ustilago nuda (C.N.Jensen) Kellerm. & Swingle	1810	J.E. Humphrey
Ranunculus ambigens S.Watson	1831	S. Shurtleff
Dactylis glomerata L.	1839	S J Ewer
Solidago arguta Aiton	1841	Collector(s): Henry Holmes Babcock, Henry Griswold Jesup	Amherst
Phlebiella vaga (Fr.) P.Karst.	1845	Illegible collector name
Elodea nuttallii (Planch.) H.St.John	1847	H. G. Jesup
Biatora sanguineoatra (Wulfen) Tuck.	1848	Tuckerman Edward

All 8,229 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Pelham: 1 producer, 1 past producer, 1 occurrence. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Asbestos, Emery, Iron. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Andrews Mine	Iron	Occurrence	1871
Blakeslee-Arpaia-Chapman S&G Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Pelham Quarry	Asbestos, Emery	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Hampshire County

Storms near this place

18 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Pelham in 18 storm reports between 1995 and 2023: 9 thunderstorm wind, 6 hail, 3 lightning. The reports record 2 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
June 2023	Lightning	Pelham	1 hurt	In Pelham on Amherst Road, the Fire Dept. reported an individual struck by lightning, with a reported foot injury. Report relayed by amateur radio.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Pelham	1 hurt	Numerous trees downed. One tree fell on a car which injured a woman.
July 2014	Lightning	Pelham	$15,000	Lightning struck a house on Boyden Street in Pelham causing a basement fire.
June 2013	Lightning	West Pelham	$15,000	A house at 57 Harkness Road was struck by lightning, which ignited a fire. The house sustained minor damage before it was extinguished.
August 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Pelham	$15,000	no account filed
May 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Pelham	$5,000	no account filed
May 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Pelham	$5,000	no account filed
May 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	West Pelham	$1,000	In Pelham, MA a tree was down on both Jones Rd. and Amherst Rd.
November 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	West Pelham	$800	In Pelham, a tree and wires were down across North Valley Road.
July 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	West Pelham	$500	In Pelham, a tree was down on Enfield Rd.
July 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	West Pelham	$300	In Pelham, wires were down on Amherst Road near Enfield Road.
July 2021	Hail	Pelham	-	In Pelham, golf ball sized hail was reported.
July 1995	Hail	Pelham	-	Golf ball-size hail was observed in Hadley and Amherst and dime-size hail fell in Pelham.
September 2014	Hail	Pelham	-	no account filed
May 2007	Hail	Pelham	-	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Pelham	-	no account filed
June 2000	Hail	Pelham	-	no account filed
September 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Pelham	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Hampshire 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Knights Corner	2.8 miles	32
Meads Corner	2.9 miles	32
Packardville	3.4 miles	32
West Pelham	3.7 miles	35
East Village	5.1 miles	35
Dwight	5.1 miles	32
Cushman	5.6 miles	42
Amherst Center	6.2 miles	42

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 609200. 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.