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

Tasseltop, Massachusetts

46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Douglas town. It lies in ZIP code area 01516. It stands on Bating Brook. The Survey maps it on the Uxbridge quadrangle.

Tasseltop within Worcester County

Then and now

1886 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 103 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Tasseltop, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Tasseltop, surveyed 1886

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

27 since 2008

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 27 fires within 5 miles of Tasseltop between 2008 and 2020, burning about 17 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 was 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 burning8
Recreation and ceremony5
Smoking4
Equipment and vehicle use3
Power generation/transmission/distribution3
Missing data/not specified/undetermined2
Railroad operations and maintenance1
Arson/incendiarism1

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
6 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 2015Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
19 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
25 July 2016Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
19 July 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
1 July 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
6 May 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 May 2015Smokingunder 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 465 shown

Museums hold 465 specimens collected within 10 miles of Tasseltop between 1844 and 1974: 209 Animalia, 205 Plantae, 34 Fungi, 10 Protozoa, 4 Chromista, 3 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. R. Hodgdon; F. L. Steele, A. R. Hodgdon; F. L. Steele 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 Chilonectria coryli (Fuckel) Ellis & Everh.Chilonectria coryli (Fuckel) Ellis & Everh.1896Henderson
Specimen of Coryneum pulvinatum KunzeCoryneum pulvinatum Kunze1897D. Murray
A photograph of the species Trichophorum planifolium, not of this specimenTrichophorum planifolium (Spreng.) Palla1844Collector unspecifiedUxbridge
A photograph of the species Carex vesicaria, not of this specimenCarex vesicaria L.1848J. W. Robbins
A photograph of the species Potamogeton epihydrus, not of this specimenPotamogeton epihydrus Raf.1848J. W. RobbinsUxbridge
A photograph of the species Potamogeton bicupulatus, not of this specimenPotamogeton bicupulatus Fernald1854W. J. RobbinsUxbridge
A photograph of the species Carex brevior, not of this specimenCarex brevior (Dewey) Mack.1855J. W. Robbins
A photograph of the species Carex normalis, not of this specimenCarex normalis Mack.1855J. W. Robbins
A photograph of the species Carex siccata, not of this specimenCarex siccata Dewey1855J. W. Robbins
A photograph of the species Carex straminea, not of this specimenCarex straminea Willd. ex Schkuhr1855J. W. Robbins
A photograph of the species Hyla versicolor, not of this specimenHyla versicolor LeConte, 18251857Weinland, David Friedrich
Sterna hirundo hirundo Linnaeus, 17581892Babbitt, J PMassachusetts

All 465 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Tasseltop: 8 past producers, 1 unknown, 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Lead, 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
Uxbridge ProspectLead, ZincProspect
Douglas PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Gilbon Mountain PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Guiou PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Hutnak Construction CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Johnson PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Mable JohnsonSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Mable Johnson PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Town of East Douglas PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Wallis PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

3 since 2019

The National Weather Service names Tasseltop in 3 storm reports between 2019 and 2025: 3 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
July 2025Thunderstorm WindTasseltop$800In Douglas, a large tree was down on Perry St.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindTasseltop$800In Douglas, a tree was down on power lines on Hemlock Street.
August 2019Thunderstorm WindTasseltop-A sailboat was flipped over on Wallum Lake due to thunderstorm wind gusts. No injuries reported.

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
Douglas2.5 miles46
East Douglas Station2.7 miles46
East Douglas3.5 miles46
Halfway House3.8 miles46
Manchaug5.2 miles46
South Sutton5.4 miles46
Ironstone5.8 miles50
Lakeview Heights5.8 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 Q122542972The 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 611071. 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.