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

Sterling Camp Grounds, Massachusetts

46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Sterling town. It lies in ZIP code area 01564. It stands on Connelly Brook. The Survey maps it on the Sterling quadrangle.

Sterling Camp Grounds within Worcester County

Then and now

1885 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 104 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Sterling Camp Grounds, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Sterling Camp Grounds, surveyed 1885

Topographic sheets covering this place

46 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

68 since 2004

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 68 fires within 5 miles of Sterling Camp Grounds between 2004 and 2020, burning about 35 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 burning36
Missing data/not specified/undetermined13
Recreation and ceremony7
Arson/incendiarism5
Smoking4
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
2 September 2016Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
25 August 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 August 2017Debris and open burning1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 July 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 July 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 July 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 July 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 July 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder 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 1,002 shown

Museums hold 1,002 specimens collected within 10 miles of Sterling Camp Grounds between 1848 and 1973: 519 Plantae, 365 Animalia, 105 Fungi, 5 Unrecorded, 4 Chromista, 4 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. Ferrett, A. G. Chandler, A. K. Harrison 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 Athyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.ClausenAthyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.Clausen1900DavenportPine Hill; Medford
Specimen of Pooecetes gramineus gramineus (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)Pooecetes gramineus gramineus (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)1900Roscoe I. Giles
A photograph of the species Tamias striatus, not of this specimenTamias striatus lysteri (Richardson, 1829)1848L AgassizPARSONS ISLAND
A photograph of the species Geranium maculatum, not of this specimenGeranium maculatum L.1850not recorded
A photograph of the species Packera aurea, not of this specimenPackera aurea (L.) Á.Löve & D.Löve1850not recorded
A photograph of the species Hygrophorus coccineus, not of this specimenHygrophorus coccineus (Schaeff.) Fr.1856D. Murray; C. J. Sprague[Presumably Massachusetts]
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 Magnolia soulangeana, not of this specimenMagnolia × soulangeana Soul.-Bod.1866J. Mekenes
Arthuriomyces peckianus (Howe) Cummins & Y.Hirats.1892W. B. Hosmer

All 1,002 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 14 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 14 workings within 5 miles of Sterling Camp Grounds: 9 past producers, 3 producers, 2 prospects. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Peat, Tungsten, 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
Luciani ProspectTungstenProspect
Pandolf QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Sterling Peat CoPeatPast ProducerPeat
Sterling ProspectIron, ZincProspect
Baldarelli Bros. Sand & Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Baldarelli Brothers Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
John D PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Landfill PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Landfill PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working 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
Sterling Junction0.5 miles46
Oakdale2.0 miles46
Sterling2.1 miles46
West Boylston3.0 miles45
Moores Corners3.2 miles46
Boylston3.3 miles43
Pleasant Valley3.6 miles45
Ebenville3.8 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 Q122558528The 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 610555. 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.