Reading Highlands, Massachusetts

The same ground, surveyed 102 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1886 1988

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.

• 1886 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:62500
• 1888 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:62500
• 1918 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:62500
• 1918 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:62500
• 1943 USGS Lowell quadrangle1:125000
• 1944 USGS Reading quadrangle1:31680
• 1944 USGS Reading quadrangle1:31680
• 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1951 USGS Reading quadrangle1:24000
• 1951 USGS Reading quadrangle1:31680
• 1951 USGS Reading quadrangle1:31680
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1966 USGS Reading quadrangle1:25000
• 1966 USGS Reading quadrangle1:24000
• 1977 USGS Reading quadrangle1:25000
• 1984 USGS Lowell quadrangle1:100000
• 1987 USGS Reading quadrangle1:25000
• 1987 USGS Reading quadrangle1:25000
• 1988 USGS Lowell quadrangle1:100000
• 1988 USGS Lowell quadrangle1:100000

The county history of 1908 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for the smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 55 fires within 5 miles of Reading Highlands between 2003 and 2020, burning about 25 acres in total. None started naturally. 3 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.

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:

• Reading
• Mishawum
• Montrose
• Wakefield
• North Woburn
• Wakefield Junction

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Museums hold 952 specimens collected within 10 miles of Reading Highlands between 1898 and 1975: 411 Animalia, 362 Plantae, 154 Fungi, 11 Bacteria, 7 Unrecorded, 4 Chromista, 3 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A B Seymour, A B. Proper 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
	Trientalis borealis Raf.	1900	A. P. Chute
	Aglaospora profusa (Fr.) De Not.	1898	Collector unspecified
	Cantharellus infundibuliformis (Scop.) Fr.	1898	not recorded	Melrose.
	Cladonia rangiferina (L.) Weber	1898	Francis P Daniels	Arlington Heights
	Cordyceps capitata (Holmsk.) Link	1898	Conant, [?] F.	Middlesex Fells
	Ctenidium malacodes Mitt.	1898	not recorded
	Cucurbitaria elongata (Fr.) Grev.	1898	J. G. Hall
	Aphanochaete repens A.Braun	1900	F. S. Collins	Middlesex Fells, Wright's Pond, on Oedogonium, etc.
	Batrachospermum gelatinosum (L.) DC.	1900	F. S. Collins	on stones in stream
	Batrachospermum moniliforme Sirodot	1900	F. S. Collins	on stones in stream
	Betula alleghaniensis Britton	1900	E. F. Williams
	Bremia lactucae Regel	1900	Seymour, A. B.	Belmont

All 952 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

The federal mineral resources record lists 16 workings within 5 miles of Reading Highlands: 8 past producers, 4 producers, 3 plants, 1 unknown. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Titanium, Iron. 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 Middlesex 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 612809. 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.