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

South Ashfield, Massachusetts

32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1998. It stands in Ashfield town. It lies in ZIP code area 01330. It stands on Mill Hill. The Survey maps it on the Ashfield quadrangle.

South Ashfield within Franklin County

Then and now

1886 to 1998

The same ground, surveyed 112 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 Ashfield, surveyed 1998
Topographic sheet of South Ashfield, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

32 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

12 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of South Ashfield between 2015 and 2020, burning about 14 acres in total. None 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
Debris and open burning8
Equipment and vehicle use3
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
11 September 2015Equipment and vehicle use2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
31 July 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 April 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
15 April 2017Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
15 April 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 March 2020Debris and open burning2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 March 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
31 March 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Franklin County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,750 shown

Museums hold 1,750 specimens collected within 10 miles of South Ashfield between 1822 and 1975: 1,023 Plantae, 576 Fungi, 130 Animalia, 17 Protozoa, 2 Chromista, 2 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A V Osmun, A., A. F. Beals 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 Buellia disciformis (Fr.) MuddBuellia disciformis (Fr.) Mudd1900George P. ClintonHammond Pond
Specimen of Cardamine diphylla (Michx.) A.W.WoodCardamine diphylla (Michx.) A.W.Wood1900F. F. Forbes
A photograph of the species Ptilidium pulcherrimum, not of this specimenPtilidium pulcherrimum (Weber) Hampe1822Ebenezer Emmons
A photograph of the species Carex pauciflora, not of this specimenCarex pauciflora Lightf.1825Collector unspecifiedAshfield. [Inferred county from precise loc.]
A photograph of the species Veratrum viride, not of this specimenVeratrum viride subsp. viride1847not recordedBrunswick and Goshen
A photograph of the species Panicum virgatum, not of this specimenPanicum virgatum L.1867R. G. Poland
A photograph of the species Halenia deflexa, not of this specimenHalenia deflexa (Sm.) Griseb.1868Collector(s): Henry Griswold JesupCummington
A photograph of the species Botrychium matricariifolium, not of this specimenBotrychium matricariifolium (Döll) A.Braun ex Koch1873H. G. Jesup
Botrychium virginianum subsp. typicum R.T.Clausen1873Jesup, H.G.Goshen.
A photograph of the species Phegopteris connectilis, not of this specimenPhegopteris connectilis (Michx.) Watt1892B. ShimekCummington.
A photograph of the species Asplenium ruta-muraria, not of this specimenAsplenium ruta-muraria L.1895A. F. BealsSugar loaf Mountain, (north), South Deerfield
A photograph of the species Juglans cinerea, not of this specimenJuglans cinerea L.1895C. W. TrowBuckland.

All 1,750 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 South Ashfield: 5 occurrences, 5 past producers, 4 producers. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Lithium, Limestone, General, Limestone, Dimension, Stone, Dimension. 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
Flagstone QuarryStone, DimensionProducerMetamorphic
Flagstone QuarryFlagstonePast Producer
Goshen-Lithia AreaTin, LithiumOccurrence1823
Limestone - Marble QuarryLimestone, GeneralProducer
Limestone - Marble QuarryLimestone, GeneralProducerMarble
Limestone-Marble QuarryLimestone, DimensionPast Producer
Limestone-Marble QuarryLimestone, DimensionPast Producer
Barrus Property Lithia MineLithiumOccurrence
Barrus Property Lithia MineLithiumOccurrence
Manning Locality Lithia MineLithiumOccurrenceFeldspar

Every working recorded in Franklin County

Storms nearby

9 since 2011

The National Weather Service names South Ashfield in 9 storm reports between 2011 and 2025: 4 thunderstorm wind, 2 flood, 2 flash flood, 1 tornado. The reports record 1 injury. 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
February 2017Tornado (EF1)South Ashfield1 hurt, $400,000The second phase of this tornado touched down at 723 pm EST on Main Poland Road in western Conway Massachusetts. The path width started at 50 yards, with a sharp gradient evident of damage versus no damage. Large sections of forest had thick pine trees snapped at mid-tree. Numerous power lines were downed along the path into downtown Conway. The path width grew, reaching a maximum width of 200 yards near the town hall. Several houses were severely damaged on Whately Road, southeast of the town hall. Roofs were blown off, and in one case the side walls of a house were missing with the interior of the house exposed. On Hill View Road a large barn collapsed. One injury occurred when a tree landed on a house on South Deerfield Road east of town. That was where the visible damage path ended.
February 2017Thunderstorm WindSouth Ashfield$3,500Tree down on Creamery Road in Ashfield. Tree down on a house on Conway Road in Ashfield. Also trees and wires down on Pfersick Road.
June 2018Thunderstorm WindSouth Ashfield$1,500At 4:31 PM EST, wires and a transformer were down on Conway Road, State Route 116, in Ashfield.
June 2024Thunderstorm WindSouth Ashfield$1,000In Ashfield, a tree a wires were down including a tree on Rt. 116 at Conway Rd.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindSouth Ashfield$800In Ashfield, a spotter saw Spotter saw two downed trees on side of County and Williamsburg Roads.
July 2023Flash FloodSouth Ashfield-In Conway, there was significant street flooding on Main Poland rd.
July 2023FloodSouth Ashfield-In Ashfield, Conway Rd was flooded.
July 2023Flash FloodSouth Ashfield-In Conway, North Poland Rd at Rt 116 was flooded up to doors of cars.
August 2011FloodSouth Ashfield-After receiving nearly ten inches of rain with Tropical Storm Irene, local brooks flowed over North Poland Road in Conway.

Every storm recorded in Franklin 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
Ashfield1.3 miles32
Beldingville1.9 miles32
Baptist Corner2.9 miles32
Burkville3.4 miles34
Spruce Corner3.8 miles32
Shirkshire3.9 miles34
Buckland Four Corners4.0 miles32
Conway4.1 miles34

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 Q122590651The 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 608239. 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.