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

Pleasant Valley, Massachusetts

45 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1989. It stands in West Boylston town. It lies in ZIP code area 01583. It stands on Pine Hill. The Survey maps it on the Worcester North quadrangle.

Pleasant Valley 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 Pleasant Valley, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Pleasant Valley, surveyed 1885

Topographic sheets covering this place

45 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

54 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 54 fires within 5 miles of Pleasant Valley between 2015 and 2020, burning about 33 acres in total. None started naturally. 4 were 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 burning29
Missing data/not specified/undetermined10
Recreation and ceremony6
Smoking4
Arson/incendiarism4
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
2 September 2016Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
18 September 2016Smoking3.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
14 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
25 August 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 August 2017Debris and open burning1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
13 August 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 July 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 July 2018Debris 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 1,907 shown

Museums hold 1,907 specimens collected within 10 miles of Pleasant Valley between 1839 and 1974: 1,100 Plantae, 508 Animalia, 271 Fungi, 17 Unrecorded, 7 Protozoa, 4 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 Porella platyphylla (L.) Pfeiff.Porella platyphylla (L.) Pfeiff.1895James F. CollinsSouth spur, Mount Wachusett
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 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
A photograph of the species Carex aperta, not of this specimenCarex aperta Boott1853W. BoottMassachusetts
Elymus repens (L.) Gould1892Arthur B. SeymourCambridge.
Festuca pratensis Huds.1892Arthur B. SeymourCambridge.

All 1,907 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 19 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 19 workings within 5 miles of Pleasant Valley: 13 past producers, 5 producers, 1 prospect. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Iron, Zinc. 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
Pandolf QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Shrewsbury Trap RockStoneProducer
Sterling ProspectIron, ZincProspect
Baldarelli Bros. Sand & Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Baldarelli Brothers Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Elmwood Street PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
F Ang G Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
F and G PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
John D PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working 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
West Boylston1.2 miles45
Boylston Center1.8 miles44
Summit1.9 miles45
Oakdale2.7 miles46
Morningdale2.9 miles45
Burncoat3.3 miles45
Canada Mills3.3 miles45
Sterling Junction3.4 miles46

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 610528. 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.