Ponakin Mill, Massachusetts

The same ground, surveyed 110 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1887 1997

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register within a mile 2 records

The National Register names another town for these. They stand within one mile of this settlement's coordinate.

• Ponakin Bridgelisted 1979 · 0.1 miles away
• North Village Historic Districtlisted 1977 · 0.8 miles away

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.

• 1887 USGS Marlboro quadrangle1:62500
• 1889 USGS Marlboro quadrangle1:62500
• 1896 USGS Marlboro quadrangle1:62500
• 1898 USGS Marlboro quadrangle1:62500, 8 printings
• 1908 USGS Quinsigamond quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
• 1943 USGS Clinton quadrangle1:31680, 3 printings
• 1943 USGS Quinsigamond quadrangle1:125000
• 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1950 USGS Clinton quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
• 1950 USGS Clinton quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
• 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1965 USGS Clinton quadrangle1:25000
• 1965 USGS Clinton quadrangle1:24000
• 1975 USGS Clinton quadrangle1:25000
• 1985 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000
• 1988 USGS Hudson quadrangle1:25000, 2 printings
• 1989 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
• 1997 USGS Hudson quadrangle1:25000

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

History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 134 fires within 5 miles of Ponakin Mill between 2002 and 2020, burning about 2,727 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.

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

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Camp Green Eyrie
• Five Corners
• Gates Crossing
• Harvard
• Harvard Station
• Lancaster

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 2,207 specimens collected within 10 miles of Ponakin Mill between 1859 and 1974: 1,253 Animalia, 572 Plantae, 362 Fungi, 10 Unrecorded, 9 Chromista, 1 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Gibson, A. Ferrett 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	Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
	Chrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook.	1899	E. F. Williams
	Athyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.Clausen	1900	Davenport	Pine Hill; Medford
	Condylura cristata cristata (Linnaeus, 1758)	1859	E S Wheeler	BERLIN
	Dryobates pubescens medianus (Swainson, 1832)	1861	not recorded	Bolton
	Clemmys insculpta Fitzinger, 1835	1864	Agassiz
	Hylesinus aculeatus Say & T., 1824	1872	unknown	Fitchburg
	Bromus sterilis L.	1879	C. E. Faxon
	Megascops asio asio (Linnaeus, 1758)	1879	Smith, J. C.; Thomas Wilmer Dewing collection	Groton
	Merulius lacrymans (Wulfen) Schumach.	1879	Howes, A.	Massachusetts
	Strix varia varia Barton, 1799	1880	Smith, J. C.; Thomas Wilmer Dewing collection	Groton
	Hypericum gentianoides (L.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.	1881	Fredrick L Sargent	Lunenburg
	Arthuriomyces peckianus (Howe) Cummins & Y.Hirats.	1892	W. B. Hosmer

All 2,207 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 13 workings within 5 miles of Ponakin Mill: 6 past producers, 5 producers, 1 prospect, 1 unknown. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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.

Every working recorded in Worcester County

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

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.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 611158. 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.