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

Plain, Massachusetts

48 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Concord town. It lies in ZIP code area 01742. It sits by Farmers Cliff. The Survey maps it on the Concord quadrangle.

Plain within Middlesex County

Then and now

1886 to 1989

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 Plain, surveyed 1989

Topographic sheet of Plain, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

48 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 Concord town, in the words of 1908.

1908, Concord Town

Chapter Iv

Philip's War. - State of the Country. - Garrison Houses. - Expedition to Brookfield. - Proceedings of Government} and of the Town. - Lancaster burnt. - Christian Indians in Concord. - Feelings towards the Indians. - Abraham and Isaac Shepherd killed. - Groton burnt. - People remove to Concord. - Proceedings of Government.

Read the rest of this passage

Photographs

1 photograph, 1942

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

Mass attack. Problems of production for war work are studied by apprentices in an eastern arsenal. Instructors explain the operation of a radical drill
Palmer, Alfred T., photographer, 1942. Library of Congress

Fires nearby

29 since 2012

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 29 fires within 5 miles of Plain between 2012 and 2020, burning about 12 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 burning	18
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	8
Recreation and ceremony	2
Railroad operations and maintenance	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
16 September 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
19 July 2020	Railroad operations and maintenance	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
6 June 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 June 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
25 June 2020	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
8 May 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
8 May 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
8 May 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 551 shown

Museums hold 551 specimens collected within 10 miles of Plain between 1898 and 1975: 260 Animalia, 183 Plantae, 100 Fungi, 4 Protozoa, 3 Chromista, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. B. Seymour & M. D. Feigley, A. E. Feldman 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
Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822	1900	not recorded	Wayland
Boletus griseus Frost	1898	H. Webster
Dumetella carolinensis (Linnaeus, 1766)	1898	Collector(s): Will C. Colt	Lincoln
Lophodermium pinastri (Schrad.) Chevall.	1898	Hubbard F. T.; Hall G. G.	Lincoln
Neolentinus lepideus (Fr.) Redhead & Ginns	1898	not recorded	Weston.
Pipilo erythrophthalmus erythrophthalmus (Linnaeus, 1758)	1898	not recorded	Lincoln
Podura aquatica C.Linnæus, 1758	1898	not recorded
Rosa nitida Willd.	1898	C. H. Knowlton
Salix eriocephala Michx.	1898	E. F. Williams
Taraxacum laevigatum (Willd.) DC.	1898	E. F. Williams
Araiospora pulchra Thaxt.	1900	Thaxter, Roland	Stony Brook, Mass. [Massachusetts]
Betula alleghaniensis Britton	1900	E. F. Williams

All 551 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 11 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 11 workings within 5 miles of Plain: 7 past producers, 3 producers, 1 occurrence. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Copper. 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
Carlisle Deposit	Copper	Occurrence
Cu Prospect	Copper	Past Producer
Acton Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Acton Pit--Assabet S & G	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Acton Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Acton Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Assabet Sand and Gravel Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Britt Construction	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Britt Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Kennedy Brothers Acton Sand and Gra	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary

Every working recorded in Middlesex 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
Concord	2.0 miles	48
East Acton	2.1 miles	43
West Concord	2.1 miles	43
North Acton	2.9 miles	43
Meriams Corner	3.0 miles	48
West Bedford	3.0 miles	48
Acton	3.2 miles	43
Carlisle	3.4 miles	41

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 606420. 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.