South Athol, Massachusetts

The same ground, surveyed 103 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1887 1990

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.

• 1887 USGS Warwick quadrangle1:62500
• 1889 USGS Warwick quadrangle1:62500
• 1894 USGS Warwick quadrangle1:62500, 6 printings
• 1935 USGS Warwick quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
• 1937 USGS Orange quadrangle1:24000
• 1941 USGS Orange quadrangle1:31680, 3 printings
• 1942 USGS Keene quadrangle1:125000
• 1948 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1948 USGS Orange quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
• 1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1957 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1959 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1961 USGS Orange quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
• 1962 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1975 USGS Orange quadrangle1:25000
• 1977 USGS Orange quadrangle1:25000
• 1986 USGS Keene quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
• 1990 USGS Orange quadrangle1:25000, 2 printings

History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889 names this settlement in its chapter on Athol Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 30 fires within 5 miles of South Athol between 2015 and 2020, burning about 54 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 2 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.

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

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Eaglesville
• North Dana (historical)
• Partridgeville
• Burrage Corner
• Pinedale
• The Street

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,351 specimens collected within 10 miles of South Athol between 1856 and 1975: 734 Animalia, 424 Fungi, 169 Plantae, 15 Unrecorded, 9 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. Melander, A. Melander & A. Melander, A. P. Baker 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	Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
	Pyxine sorediata (Ach.) Mont.	1856	Charles C. Frost
	Athyrium filix-femina var. angustum (Willd.) G.Lawson	1876	Harris, M.E.	Mount Loby
	Hemitrichia vesparia (Batsch) T.Macbr., 1899	1882	not recorded	Petersham
	Taphrina caerulescens (Desm. & Mont.) Tul.	1892	A.B. Seymour	Stoneham, Middlesex Fells
	Solidago uliginosa Nutt.	1896	G. T. Hastings	Tully. Tully Lake.
	Juncus nodosus L.	1898	G. T. Hastings	Tully Lake.
	Amanita peckiana Kauffman	1901	A. P. Baker
	Hypholoma radicosum J.E.Lange	1903	A. P. Baker
	Stereum complicatum (Fr.) Fr.	1906	Spaulding P.	Petersham
	Polyporus cinnabarinus (Jacq.) Fr.	1927	Spaulding P.	Petersham
	unnamed	1928	Spaulding P.; Hansbrough J. R.	Petersham
	Botrytis P.Micheli, 1729	1928	Perley Spaulding	Petersham

All 1,351 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of South Athol: 3 past producers, 1 producer, 1 occurrence. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Iron. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names South Athol in 5 storm reports between 2008 and 2024: 5 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.

Every storm recorded in Worcester County

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

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.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 609479. 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.