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

South Peabody, Massachusetts

42 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Peabody City. It lies in ZIP code area 01960. It stands on Tapley Brook. The Survey maps it on the Salem quadrangle.

South Peabody within Essex County

Then and now

1888 to 1985

The same ground, surveyed 97 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 Peabody, surveyed 1985
Topographic sheet of South Peabody, surveyed 1888

Topographic sheets covering this place

42 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

110 since 2003

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 110 fires within 5 miles of South Peabody between 2003 and 2020, burning about 278 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 7 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 ceremony33
Smoking22
Debris and open burning13
Missing data/not specified/undetermined9
Misuse of fire by a minor8
Equipment and vehicle use8
Arson/incendiarism7
Fireworks5
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Natural1
Railroad operations and maintenance1
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
4 September 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBEVERLY
28 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 September 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
25 September 2015Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSAUGUS
21 September 2020Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 September 2020Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder 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 10,362 shown

Museums hold 10,362 specimens collected within 10 miles of South Peabody between 1800 and 1975: 4,884 Plantae, 3,031 Animalia, 980 Chromista, 744 Fungi, 429 Unrecorded, 282 Bacteria, 12 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A B. Proper, A H HIGGINSON, 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
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 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 Carex echinata, not of this specimenCarex echinata subsp. echinata1834Collector unspecifiedChelsea. [Inferred county from precise loc.]
A photograph of the species Desmarestia viridis, not of this specimenDesmarestia viridis (O.F.Müll.) J.V.Lamour.1841C. E. PeaseMarblehead
A photograph of the species Polysiphonia urceolata, not of this specimenPolysiphonia urceolata (Lightfoot ex Dillwyn) Greville1841F. S. CollinsRevere Beach, Revere, MA
A photograph of the species Carex caryophyllea, not of this specimenCarex caryophyllea Latourr.1847C. DeweySalem
A photograph of the species Carex muhlenbergii, not of this specimenCarex muhlenbergii Kunth ex Boott1847F. M. B. Boott
A photograph of the species Ceramium rubrum, not of this specimenCeramium rubrum C.Agardh1848E. Hodges
A photograph of the species Cladophora rupestris, not of this specimenCladophora rupestris (L.) Kütz.1848H. W. W. BaileyLittle Nahant, MA

All 10,362 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 17 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 17 workings within 5 miles of South Peabody: 6 plants, 5 past producers, 4 producers, 1 unknown. 10 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Zirconium, Iron. 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
(Facility) Travers Labs Refinery--Beverly, Ma.Mercury, Silver, Gold, REEPlant
Hale Engineering Co--Danvers, Ma.TungstenPlant
Lynn Eastern Smelt & Refin CorpGold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium, MercuryPlant
Saugus DepositIronOccurrence
Thiokol Ventron Div--Danvers, Ma.ThoriumPlant
Donald Innis IncSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Kay Locke Inc PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Thiokol Ventron Div--Beverly, Ma.ZirconiumPlant
Ventron Corp--Beverly, Ma.ZirconiumPast Producer
Danvers QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer

Every working recorded in Essex County

Storms nearby

4 since 2017

The National Weather Service names South Peabody in 4 storm reports between 2017 and 2025: 4 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 2025Thunderstorm WindSouth Peabody$10,000In Salem, a tree and wires were down on a car.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindSouth Peabody$9,000In Peabody, a tree was down on a truck on Norfolk Avenue. A tree was down on power lines at both Lynnfield Street and Columbia Blvd. A tree was down on Bartlett Street.
September 2025Thunderstorm WindSouth Peabody$5,000In Salem, a tree was down partially on a house. Another tree was down on a vehicle on Congress St.
May 2017Thunderstorm WindSouth Peabody$2,000At 955 PM EST, a tree was reported down on wires on Lynn Street at Bowen Road.

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
Needham Corner0.6 miles42
Peabody1.7 miles42
Wyoma1.7 miles43
Proctor1.7 miles42
North Salem2.6 miles42
South Lynnfield2.8 miles40
Salem2.9 miles42
Lynn3.0 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.

Wikidata item Q49368150The 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 614347. 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.