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

South Lancaster, Massachusetts

43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Lancaster town. It lies in ZIP code area 01523. It stands on Goodridge Brook. The Survey maps it on the Clinton quadrangle. 1,838 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 285 feet above sea level.

South Lancaster within Worcester County

Population over time

2 figures

South Lancaster fell from 1,894 to 1,838 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
20101,894
20201,838-56 (-3%)

Then and now

1887 to 1997

The same ground, surveyed 110 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 Lancaster, surveyed 1997
Topographic sheet of South Lancaster, surveyed 1887

Compare 1887 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

43 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

103 since 2002

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 103 fires within 5 miles of South Lancaster between 2002 and 2020, burning about 2,729 acres in total. None started naturally. 5 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 burning47
Missing data/not specified/undetermined25
Recreation and ceremony14
Arson/incendiarism5
Smoking5
Equipment and vehicle use4
Misuse of fire by a minor3

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
7 September 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
14 August 2002Missing data/not specified/undetermined300 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlDEVENS
10 August 2015Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
1 August 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined80 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
1 August 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 July 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 July 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 July 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,758 shown

Museums hold 1,758 specimens collected within 10 miles of South Lancaster between 1859 and 1974: 1,128 Animalia, 323 Plantae, 294 Fungi, 6 Unrecorded, 5 Chromista, 2 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. Gibson, A. Ferrett, A. G. Chandler 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 Porella platyphylla (L.) Pfeiff.Porella platyphylla (L.) Pfeiff.1895James F. CollinsSouth spur, Mount Wachusett
Specimen of Chrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook.Chrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook.1899E. F. Williams
Specimen of Athyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.ClausenAthyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.Clausen1900DavenportPine Hill; Medford
A photograph of the species Condylura cristata, not of this specimenCondylura cristata cristata (Linnaeus, 1758)1859E S WheelerBERLIN
A photograph of the species Dryobates pubescens, not of this specimenDryobates pubescens medianus (Swainson, 1832)1861not recordedBolton
A photograph of the species Clemmys insculpta, not of this specimenClemmys insculpta Fitzinger, 18351864Agassiz
A photograph of the species Bromus sterilis, not of this specimenBromus sterilis L.1879C. E. Faxon
A photograph of the species Merulius lacrymans, not of this specimenMerulius lacrymans (Wulfen) Schumach.1879Howes, A.Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Icterus galbula, not of this specimenIcterus galbula (Linnaeus, 1758)1881G. L. BrighamBolton
Nitella megacarpa (T.F.A.) R.D.W.1881T. F. AllenNashua River
Arthuriomyces peckianus (Howe) Cummins & Y.Hirats.1892W. B. Hosmer
A photograph of the species Castilleja coccinea, not of this specimenCastilleja coccinea (L.) Spreng.1892E. C. SmithMarboro.

All 1,758 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 13 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 13 workings within 5 miles of South Lancaster: 8 past producers, 4 producers, 1 prospect. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Peat, Iron, Zinc. 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
Pandolf QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Sterling Peat CoPeatPast ProducerPeat
Sterling ProspectIron, ZincProspect
Bates Sand and Gravel Co.Sand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Berlin PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Bolton PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Kanis PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Lancaster PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Landfill PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Landfill PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

2 since 2020

The National Weather Service names South Lancaster in 2 storm reports between 2020 and 2026: 2 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 2026Thunderstorm WindSouth Lancaster$10,000In Lancaster, a tree was down on a house near Crescent St.
May 2020Thunderstorm WindSouth Lancaster$4,000In Lancaster, a tree was down on a house on Charlotte Street.

Every storm recorded in Worcester 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
Ebenville0.9 miles43
Lancaster1.1 miles43
Five Corners1.1 miles43
Fullerville (historical)1.2 miles43
North Village1.8 miles43
Clinton1.9 miles43
Duck Harbor (historical)2.0 miles43
Ponakin Mill2.5 miles43

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.

Wikipedia article on South LancasterAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q7567793The 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 610918. 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.