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

Ruralville, Massachusetts

46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Holden town. It lies in ZIP code area 01522. It stands on Muschopauge Brook. The Survey maps it on the Wachusett Mountain quadrangle.

Ruralville 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 Ruralville, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Ruralville, surveyed 1885

Topographic sheets covering this place

46 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

39 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 39 fires within 5 miles of Ruralville between 2015 and 2020, burning about 22 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.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning22
Missing data/not specified/undetermined8
Recreation and ceremony6
Equipment and vehicle use2
Arson/incendiarism1

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
14 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 July 2016Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
7 June 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 June 2020Debris and open burning1.5 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
30 June 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
15 June 2017Debris and open burning1.5 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
9 May 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined6.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 May 2016Debris 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 1,469 shown

Museums hold 1,469 specimens collected within 10 miles of Ruralville between 1839 and 1974: 941 Plantae, 285 Animalia, 223 Fungi, 16 Unrecorded, 3 Protozoa, 1 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 Athyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.ClausenAthyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.Clausen1900DavenportPine Hill; Medford
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 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
A photograph of the species Hygrophorus coccineus, not of this specimenHygrophorus coccineus (Schaeff.) Fr.1856D. Murray; C. J. Sprague[Presumably Massachusetts]
Opegrapha varia Pers.1856E. Tuckerman
Hepatica americana (DC.) Ker Gawl.1892Clarence Kinney

All 1,469 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 14 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 14 workings within 5 miles of Ruralville: 9 past producers, 4 producers, 1 unknown. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Holden Trap RockStone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown
Holden Trap Rock CompanyStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
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
Holden Pit & MillSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Holden Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Intervale PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
John D PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Landfill 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
North Woods0.1 miles46
Quinapoxet1.6 miles46
Jefferson1.8 miles42
Lovellville1.9 miles45
Brooks2.0 miles46
Muschopauge2.4 miles46
Holden2.7 miles45
Canada Mills2.8 miles45

Elsewhere

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.

Wikidata item Q122561017The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 617795. 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.