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

South Middleton, Massachusetts

40 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Middleton town. It lies in ZIP code area 01949. It stands on Flint Brook. The Survey maps it on the Reading quadrangle.

South Middleton within Essex County

Then and now

1886 to 1988

The same ground, surveyed 102 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 Middleton, surveyed 1988
Topographic sheet of South Middleton, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

40 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

88 since 2003

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 88 fires within 5 miles of South Middleton between 2003 and 2020, burning about 252 acres in total. None 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.

Reported cause Fires
Recreation and ceremony21
Smoking18
Debris and open burning18
Missing data/not specified/undetermined14
Equipment and vehicle use5
Misuse of fire by a minor4
Fireworks3
Arson/incendiarism2
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Other causes1

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 2007Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
6 September 2007Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
28 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
15 September 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlLYNNFIELD
12 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlDANVERS
8 August 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMIDDLETON

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Essex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 7,595 shown

Museums hold 7,595 specimens collected within 10 miles of South Middleton between 1800 and 1975: 3,314 Plantae, 3,066 Animalia, 689 Fungi, 192 Chromista, 191 Bacteria, 130 Unrecorded, 13 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A B. Proper, A E Preble, 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 Corylus americana WalterCorylus americana Walter1900E. F. Williams
Specimen of Populus grandidentata Michx.Populus grandidentata Michx.1900E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Rhodocollybia prolixa, not of this specimenRhodocollybia prolixa var. distorta (Fr.) Antonín, Halling & Noordel.1800R. B. MackintoshPeabody
Erysiphaceae1803A. B. Seymour
A photograph of the species Hamamelis L., not of this specimenHamamelis L.1816Boott, J.Andover Turnpike [=Northern Expressway?], 6 miles from Boston.
A photograph of the species Viola labradorica, not of this specimenViola labradorica Schrank1816not recordedAndover Turnpike, 6 miles from Boston U.S.A.
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 Amaranthus cannabinus, not of this specimenAmaranthus cannabinus (L.) Sauer1822not recorded
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 Potentilla argentea, not of this specimenPotentilla argentea L.1830A. P. Bhute
A photograph of the species Desmarestia viridis, not of this specimenDesmarestia viridis (O.F.Müll.) J.V.Lamour.1841C. E. PeaseMarblehead

All 7,595 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

9 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of South Middleton: 4 past producers, 3 plants, 2 producers. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Silica, Thorium. 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
Ferro Ceramic Grinding--WakefieldSilicaPlant
Hale Engineering Co--Danvers, Ma.TungstenPlant
Thiokol Ventron Div--Danvers, Ma.ThoriumPlant
Camillieri Corp PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Danvers QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Donald Innis IncSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Essex Bituminous Concrete ProductsStone, Crushed/BrokenPast ProducerSedimentary
Kay Locke Inc PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Peabody QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer

Every working recorded in Essex County

Storms nearby

6 since 1996

The National Weather Service names South Middleton in 6 storm reports between 1996 and 2023: 3 flash flood, 2 flood, 1 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
September 2018Flash FloodSouth Middleton$5,000At 10:40 AM EST, a garage on Belleview Avenue in Middleton was flooded.
September 2023Thunderstorm WindSouth Middleton$2,000In Peabody, there were a tree and wires down on Hamilton Rd and a tree on a vehicle on Lexington Ave.
June 2017FloodSouth Middleton$1,000At 447 PM EST, rain caused twelve inches of water on Boston Street in Middleton.
September 2018Flash FloodSouth Middleton-At 11:03 AM EST, a car was trapped in floodwaters in Lynnfield at the intersection of Main Street and Lowell Street.
December 2014FloodSouth Middleton-Roosevelt Avenue at Russell Street was closed due to flooding.
October 1996Flash FloodSouth Middleton-no account filed

Every storm 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
Brigadoon Village1.2 miles40
Middleton1.8 miles40
Burleys Corner2.1 miles42
Howe2.3 miles42
Middleton Colony2.3 miles42
Lynnfield2.4 miles40
West Peabody2.5 miles42
Hathorne3.1 miles42

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 Q122549249The 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 617812. 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.