South Spencer, Massachusetts

The same ground, surveyed 98 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1887 1985

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 Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1890 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500, 7 printings
• 1908 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
• 1915 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1921 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1942 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000
• 1943 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1946 USGS East Brookfield quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
• 1948 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1954 USGS East Brookfield quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
• 1954 USGS East Brookfield quadrangle1:31680
• 1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1957 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1959 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1962 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1969 USGS East Brookfield quadrangle1:25000
• 1969 USGS East Brookfield quadrangle1:24000
• 1975 USGS East Brookfield quadrangle1:25000
• 1982 USGS Warren quadrangle1:25000, 2 printings
• 1985 USGS Holyoke quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889 names this settlement in its chapter on Spencer 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 76 fires within 5 miles of South Spencer between 2015 and 2020, burning about 52 acres in total. None started naturally. 8 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:

• East Brookfield
• North Brookfield
• Union Chapel (historical)
• Camp Bement
• Lower Wire Village
• Mystic Grove

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,062 specimens collected within 10 miles of South Spencer between 1839 and 1975: 682 Plantae, 190 Fungi, 173 Animalia, 15 Unrecorded, 2 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. A. Eaton, A. B. Seymour, A. B. Seymour et al. 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
	Carex tenera var. tenera	1899	R. M. Harper
	Ochrolechia tartarea (L.) A.Massal.	1839	E. Tuckerman
	Mycobilimbia hypnorum (Lib.) Kalb & Hafellner	1848	E. Tuckerman
	Cladonia cornucopioides F.Wilson	1850	J. L. Russell	Leicester
	Carex aperta Boott	1853	W. Boott	Massachusetts
	Opegrapha varia Pers.	1856	E. Tuckerman
	Aspidium acrostichoides (Michx.) Sw.	1859	M. S. Bebb
	Acarospora schleicheri (Ach.) A.Massal.	1862	E. Hall
	Selaginella rupestris (L.) Spring	1862	J. T. Rothrock
	Solanum rostratum Dunal	1862	C. W. Swan	Massachusetts
	Leucobryum vulgare Hampe	1892	unknown
	Lobaria quercizans Michx.	1892	C. A. Cummings

All 1,062 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 Spencer: 5 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 Spencer in 1 storm report in 2019: 1 flash flood. 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 609846. 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.