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

Salisbury Plains, Massachusetts

47 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1987. It stands in Salisbury town. It lies in ZIP code area 01952. It stands on Batt Hill. The Survey maps it on the Newburyport West quadrangle.

Salisbury Plains within Essex County

Then and now

1888 to 1987

The same ground, surveyed 99 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Salisbury Plains, surveyed 1987
Topographic sheet of Salisbury Plains, surveyed 1888

Topographic sheets covering this place

47 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

63 since 1994

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 63 fires within 5 miles of Salisbury Plains between 1994 and 2020, burning about 28 acres in total. None started naturally. 9 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 burning12
Arson/incendiarism9
Recreation and ceremony9
Equipment and vehicle use8
Fireworks7
Smoking6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined6
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Power generation/transmission/distribution3

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 2017Fireworksunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
17 September 2018Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlAMESBURY
17 September 2018Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlAMESBURY
8 August 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 August 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSALISBURY
8 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSAILSBURY
5 August 2016Recreation and ceremony2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSAILSBURY
4 July 2020Fireworksunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Essex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,703 shown

Museums hold 1,703 specimens collected within 10 miles of Salisbury Plains between 1800 and 1975: 1,124 Plantae, 445 Animalia, 73 Chromista, 54 Fungi, 3 Unrecorded, 2 Bacteria, 2 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A A Eaton, A. A. Eaton, A. A. Eaton; R. G. Leavitt 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 Hypnum curvifolium Hedw.Hypnum curvifolium Hedw.1900John W. Huntington
Specimen of Plagiotheciella latebricola (Schimp.) M.Fleisch.Plagiotheciella latebricola (Schimp.) M.Fleisch.1900John W. Huntington
A photograph of the species Rhodobryum roseum, not of this specimenRhodobryum roseum (Hedw.) Limpr.1800J. W. HuntingtonAmesbury
A photograph of the species Dichelyma capillaceum, not of this specimenDichelyma capillaceum (Dicks.) Myrin1833J. W. Huntington
A photograph of the species Dumetella carolinensis, not of this specimenDumetella carolinensis (Linnaeus, 1766)1833J.S. AppletonWest Newbury
A photograph of the species Dasya C.Agardh, not of this specimenDasya C.Agardh, 18241842Collector unknownLittle River near Old Town, 6 miles from the sea
A photograph of the species Laminaria saccharina, not of this specimenLaminaria saccharina (L.) J.V.Lamour.1842N. PikePlum Island
A photograph of the species Dasya baillouviana, not of this specimenDasya baillouviana (Gmelin) Mont.1844N. Pikenear Old Town
A photograph of the species Campylium Mitt., not of this specimenCampylium (Sull.) Mitt.1851Marian Ropes Robertsonbetween Boston St. and Devil's Den
A photograph of the species Galium circaezans, not of this specimenGalium circaezans var. hypomalacum Fernald1857R. Mock
A photograph of the species Genista tinctoria, not of this specimenGenista tinctoria L.1857R. Mock
A photograph of the species Kalmia latifolia, not of this specimenKalmia latifolia L.1857R. Mock

All 1,703 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

2 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Salisbury Plains: 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
Amesbury PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Maurice Concrete Products CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary

Every working recorded in Essex 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
Salisbury2.2 miles44
Salisbury Point2.5 miles47
Amesbury2.6 miles47
Browns Point3.5 miles44
Rings Island3.7 miles44
Cushing3.9 miles44
Salisbury Beach3.9 miles44
Newburyport3.9 miles47

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 Q122598155The 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 614338. 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.