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

South Byfield, Massachusetts

41 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Newbury town. It lies in ZIP code area 01922. It stands on Ox Pasture Brook. The Survey maps it on the Georgetown quadrangle.

South Byfield within Essex County

Then and now

1888 to 1997

The same ground, surveyed 109 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 Byfield, surveyed 1997
Topographic sheet of South Byfield, surveyed 1888

Topographic sheets covering this place

41 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

60 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 60 fires within 5 miles of South Byfield between 2015 and 2020, burning about 29 acres in total. None started naturally. 10 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 burning17
Equipment and vehicle use14
Arson/incendiarism10
Missing data/not specified/undetermined5
Misuse of fire by a minor4
Recreation and ceremony4
Power generation/transmission/distribution3
Smoking2
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
8 September 2020Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
7 September 2020Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
1 September 2020Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 August 2016Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlGROVELAND
11 August 2020Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 July 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBYFIELD
27 July 2020Equipment and vehicle useunder 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 3,218 shown

Museums hold 3,218 specimens collected within 10 miles of South Byfield between 1800 and 1975: 1,660 Plantae, 940 Animalia, 506 Fungi, 86 Chromista, 13 Protozoa, 11 Unrecorded, 2 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A A Eaton, A Brown, A. A. Eaton 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 Brasenia schreberi, not of this specimenBrasenia schreberi J.F.Gmel.1821not recordedPleasant Pond, Wenham, Mass.
A photograph of the species Diphyscium foliosum, not of this specimenDiphyscium foliosum (Hedw.) D.Mohr1822ALCOTT
A photograph of the species Arcyria oerstedii, not of this specimenArcyria oerstedii Rostaf., 18751826F. A. Gilbert
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 Glyceria obtusa, not of this specimenGlyceria obtusa (Muhl.) Trin.1838W Oakes
A photograph of the species Clethra alnifolia, not of this specimenClethra alnifolia L.1840OakesHerbariumRowley
A photograph of the species Euphorbia polygonifolia, not of this specimenEuphorbia polygonifolia L.1840Wolle, J.Ipswich
A photograph of the species Iva frutescens, not of this specimenIva frutescens L.1840Oakesad Ipswich

All 3,218 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

5 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of South Byfield: 3 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Lead, Silver, Zinc, Copper, Gold, Silver. 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
Chipman MineLead, Zinc, Copper, Gold, SilverPast Producer
Newburyport Pb-A?^IctLead, SilverPast Producer
Ipswich PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Miles River Sand and Gravel CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Rowley Ready Mix Inc.Sand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

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
Glen Mills0.8 miles41
Doles Corner1.5 miles41
Knights Crossing2.0 miles47
Leightons Corner2.4 miles41
Byfield2.5 miles47
Rowley2.6 miles41
Kent Corner3.0 miles41
Newbury Old Town3.3 miles44

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 Q122556399The 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 614344. 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.