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

Smiths Ferry, Massachusetts

44 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Holyoke City. It lies in ZIP code area 01040. It stands on Little Mountain. The Survey maps it on the Mount Holyoke quadrangle.

Smiths Ferry within Hampden County

Then and now

1885 to 1985

The same ground, surveyed 100 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Smiths Ferry, surveyed 1985

Topographic sheet of Smiths Ferry, surveyed 1885

Topographic sheets covering this place

44 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

219 since 2001

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 219 fires within 5 miles of Smiths Ferry between 2001 and 2020, burning about 405 acres in total. 25 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	76
Equipment and vehicle use	76
Natural	25
Debris and open burning	20
Recreation and ceremony	16
Arson/incendiarism	4
Smoking	2

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

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2015	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
8 September 2015	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
27 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
2 September 2016	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
18 September 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Sylvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge	MILL RV DIV MA-SCR #4
18 September 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Sylvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge	MILL RV DIV MA-SCR #3
17 September 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Sylvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge	MILL RV DIV MA-SCR #2
15 September 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Sylvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge	MILL RV DIV MA-SCR #1

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hampden County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,704 shown

Museums hold 1,704 specimens collected within 10 miles of Smiths Ferry between 1831 and 1975: 962 Plantae, 540 Animalia, 180 Fungi, 13 Chromista, 7 Protozoa, 1 Unrecorded, 1 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. Albee, A. B. Seymour, A. C. Gibson 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.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Lycopodiella inundata (L.) Holub	1892	Chapman	Southhampton
Camissonia Link	1898	B. L. Robinson
Carex bromoides Willd.	1831	Collector unknown
Carex vesicaria L.	1836	Collector unknown
Carex vestita Willd.	1836	Collector unspecified
Kalmia angustifolia f. angustifolia	1838	L. DeWette	Northampton.
Kalmia latifolia var. latifolia	1838	L. DeWette	Northampton.
Pogonia ophioglossoides (L.) Ker Gawl.	1838	L. DeWette	Northampton.
Meleagris gallopavo silvestris Vieillot, 1817	1847	William D. Whitney	Mount Tom
Stellaria graminea L.	1849	not recorded
Drymocallis arguta (Pursh) Rydb.	1851	Hexamer, A.C.; Maier, F.W.	Mount Holyolke
Acer dasycarpum Ehrh.	1891	not recorded	Northampton

All 1,704 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 Smiths Ferry: 11 producers, 8 past producers. 11 still produce. What was taken out: Brick Clay, Clay, Stone, Dimension, 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.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
South Hadlay Sand	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Sandstone Quarry	Flagstone	Past Producer
Sandstone Quarry	Flagstone	Past Producer
Granby Pit Ii	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Sandstone Quarry	Stone, Dimension	Producer	Sandstone
Sandstone Quarry	Stone, Dimension	Producer	Sandstone
Sandstone Quarry	Stone, Dimension	Producer	Sandstone
Traprock Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Traprock Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Clay Pit	Brick Clay	Producer	Clay

Every working recorded in Hampden County

Storms nearby

1 since 2011

The National Weather Service names Smiths Ferry in 1 storm report between 2011 and 2011: 1 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Smiths Ferry	$15,000	Trees were downed by thunderstorm winds, closing several roads.

Every storm recorded in Hampden 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Mountain Park	1.4 miles	43
Highland Park	2.5 miles	44
Highlands	2.7 miles	44
Holyoke	3.7 miles	44
Oakdale	3.8 miles	44
Plainville (historical)	3.8 miles	44
Fairview	4.3 miles	44
Elmwood	4.3 miles	44

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 609085. 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.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.