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

South Amherst, Massachusetts

44 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Amherst Town City. It lies in ZIP code area 01002. It stands on Mount Castor. The Survey maps it on the Mount Holyoke quadrangle.

South Amherst within Hampshire 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 South Amherst, surveyed 1985
Topographic sheet of South Amherst, 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

52 since 2001

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 52 fires within 5 miles of South Amherst between 2001 and 2020, burning about 289 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined32
Equipment and vehicle use8
Debris and open burning6
Recreation and ceremony4
Natural1
Railroad operations and maintenance1

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
29 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
28 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 July 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
14 July 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 June 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
26 June 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
1 June 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
9 May 2018Railroad operations and maintenance1.5 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hampshire County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 9,253 shown

Museums hold 9,253 specimens collected within 10 miles of South Amherst between 1781 and 1975: 3,885 Animalia, 3,407 Plantae, 1,746 Fungi, 137 Chromista, 67 Protozoa, 10 Unrecorded, 1 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. Albee, A. Allen, 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 Cercospora violae Sacc.Cercospora violae Sacc.1895Ralph E. SmithHothouse, Mass. Agr. College, Amherst
Specimen of Actias luna Linnaeus, 1758Actias luna Linnaeus, 17581896not recorded
Specimen of Plathemis lydia (Drury, 1773)Plathemis lydia (Drury, 1773)1896not recorded
A photograph of the species Carex argyrantha, not of this specimenCarex argyrantha Tuck. ex Dewey1781H. G. JesupAmherst in Hampshire Co., and Leverett in Franklin Co., Massachusetts. [Inferred counties from precise loc.]
A photograph of the species Carex foenea, not of this specimenCarex foenea Willd.1781H. G. JesupAnd Leverett
A photograph of the species Ustilago nuda, not of this specimenUstilago nuda (C.N.Jensen) Kellerm. & Swingle1810J.E. Humphrey
A photograph of the species Ranunculus ambigens, not of this specimenRanunculus ambigens S.Watson1831S. Shurtleff
A photograph of the species Kalmia angustifolia, not of this specimenKalmia angustifolia f. angustifolia1838L. DeWetteNorthampton.
A photograph of the species Kalmia latifolia, not of this specimenKalmia latifolia var. latifolia1838L. DeWetteNorthampton.
A photograph of the species Pogonia ophioglossoides, not of this specimenPogonia ophioglossoides (L.) Ker Gawl.1838L. DeWetteNorthampton.
A photograph of the species Dactylis glomerata, not of this specimenDactylis glomerata L.1839S J Ewer
A photograph of the species Solidago arguta, not of this specimenSolidago arguta Aiton1841Collector(s): Henry Holmes Babcock, Henry Griswold JesupAmherst

All 9,253 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of South Amherst: 5 producers, 4 past producers, 1 unknown. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Brick Clay, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Clay. 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
Pelham QuarryAsbestos, EmeryPast Producer
Amherst Plant No. 5Stone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Amherst Quarry Plant#5Stone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown
Clay PitBrick ClayProducerClay
Clay PitBrick ClayProducerClay
Clay PitClayPast Producer
Clay PitClayPast Producer
Blakeslee-Arpaia-Chapman S&G CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
D D Ruxton Co IncSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Pulpit Hill Road PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Hampshire County

Storms nearby

4 since 2001

The National Weather Service names South Amherst in 4 storm reports between 2001 and 2019: 4 hail. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2019HailSouth Amherst-Three-quarter inch diameter hail was reported in two locations in Amherst MA.
May 2008HailSouth Amherst-no account filed
June 2001HailSouth Amherst-no account filed
July 2001HailSouth Amherst-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Hampshire 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
Mill Valley1.3 miles44
Amherst Center2.5 miles42
East Village2.6 miles35
Amherst2.9 miles42
East Hadley3.0 miles44
Dwight3.1 miles32
West Pelham3.2 miles35
Plainville3.5 miles42

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 609086. 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.