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

Tewksbury, Massachusetts

41 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Tewksbury town. It lies in ZIP code area 01876. It stands on Meadow Brook. The Survey maps it on the Wilmington quadrangle.

Tewksbury within Middlesex 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 Tewksbury, surveyed 1988

Topographic sheet of Tewksbury, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

41 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.

In the county-history sources

23,686 words on this township

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880 names this settlement in its chapter on Tewksbury Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

There are two saw and grist mills ; one in the north part of the town, near the Merrimack River, and the other in the southeast part, on the Shawshine. There are also an extensive tannery, expensive and successful chemical works, and a foundry and machine-shop doing a large business in tlie manufacture of cotton machinery. Both of these last-named establishments are owned and operated by Lowell jArties.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

In the old times the two sections (soutliern and northern) were distinguished by tiie sigiiiticant names of Pigeon End and Shad End ; the former on account of the numerous flocks of pigeons captured in that part, and the latter because of the immense quantities of fish (shad and salmon) taken in the spring of the year in the Merrimack, before the days of Lowell and Lawrence, and when the river was unobstructed by dams.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

Tewksbury is practically free from debt. All the expenses of the late war have been cancelled. The town's property consists of seven good sclioolhouses, a new, convenient, and suitable town-hall, an excellent farm, witli substantial and suiBcient buildings for the shelter, comfort, and support of tiie poor. Its cemetery is well, appropriately, and tastefully laid out, and the proprietors and inhabitants keep it in excellent order. A public library has been recently established, and is proving a complete success.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Tewksbury Town - it names this place 47 more 47 times.

Fires near this place

102 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 102 fires within 5 miles of Tewksbury between 2001 and 2020, burning about 45 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 6 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 burning	37
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	24
Recreation and ceremony	12
Smoking	7
Arson/incendiarism	6
Misuse of fire by a minor	4
Equipment and vehicle use	4
Railroad operations and maintenance	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	3
Natural	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
17 August 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 July 2016	Power generation/transmission/distribution	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	ANDOVER
22 July 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	ANDOVR
21 July 2004	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
2 July 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
9 June 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
9 June 2020	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
8 June 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 613 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 613 specimens collected within 10 miles of Tewksbury between 1898 and 1975: 393 Plantae, 176 Animalia, 34 Fungi, 6 Unrecorded, 2 Chromista, 2 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. Mathieson, A. E. Sears, A. F. Newton 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.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Trientalis borealis Raf.	1900	A. P. Chute
Esox americanus Gmelin, 1789	1898	E. Preble	Maple Meadow Brook near Wilmington, Massachusetts
Exosporium pusillum P.Karst.	1898	King C. A.	Stony Brook
Phegopteris polypodioides Fée	1898	Chester C. Kingman	Reading.
Antennaria howellii subsp. neodioica (Greene) R.J.Bayer	1899	Williams, E.F.
Antennaria neglecta Greene	1899	not recorded
Aristida dichotoma Michx.	1899	E. F. Williams
Arthrosporium compositum Ellis	1899	Rorer	East Billerica
Asarum canadense L.	1899	E. F. Williams
Asplenium filix-femina (L.) Bernh.	1899	Chester C. Kingman	Reading.
Araiospora pulchra Thaxt.	1900	Thaxter, R.	Stony Brook
Betula alleghaniensis Britton	1900	E. F. Williams

All 613 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Tewksbury: 3 past producers, 3 producers, 2 plants, 1 unknown. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Graphite, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Nickel, Gold, Silver, Copper. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Dracut Ni Mine/Nickel Mine Hill	Nickel, Gold, Silver, Copper	Past Producer
Avaco Corp--Lowell, Ma.	Graphite	Plant
Brox Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
George Brox Inc	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Stackpole Fibers Co--Lowell, Ma.	Graphite	Plant
Dracut Pit and Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
New England Concrete Block and Pipe	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Rocco Zambino and Sons, Inc. Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Sand & Gravel Operation	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms near this place

15 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Tewksbury in 15 storm reports between 1998 and 2023: 6 hail, 4 lightning, 3 thunderstorm wind, 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
August 2004	Hail	Tewksbury	$50,000	no account filed
August 2004	Lightning	Tewksbury	$50,000	no account filed
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tewksbury	$25,000	In Andover, twelve trees were down on Southridge Circle, with several of them landing on homes. A tree was down on wires on Greewood Road and a tree was down on wires on Chandler Road.
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Tewksbury	$20,000	Route 38 was closed because of downed power lines.
May 2015	Lightning	Tewksbury	$15,000	Lightning struck a house on Sandalwood Circle igniting a small fire near the chimney and attic.
July 2005	Lightning	Tewksbury	$15,000	no account filed
July 2023	Lightning	North Tewksbury	$5,000	In Tewksbury, a lightning strike started a house fire on the 20 block of Sheridan Lane.
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Tewksbury	$5,000	no account filed
July 2023	Flash Flood	North Tewksbury	-	In Dracut, Troll Brook Ln was flooded with a sinkhole in the yard of a residence.
September 2023	Flood	Tewksbury	-	In Tewksbury, Mt Pleasant St underpass was flooded.
June 2017	Hail	Tewksbury	-	At 345 PM EST, a trained spotter reported 1-inch diameter hail at Tewksbury.
June 2017	Hail	Tewksbury	-	At 414 PM EST, an amateur radio operator reported dime-size hail at Tewksbury.
June 2017	Hail	Tewksbury	-	At 348 PM EST, a trained spotter reported dime size hail at Tewksbury.
August 2015	Hail	Tewksbury	-	no account filed
August 1998	Hail	Tewksbury	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Middlesex 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Tewksbury Junction	1.0 miles	41
North Tewksbury	1.8 miles	38
Wamesit	1.8 miles	48
East Billerica	2.0 miles	41
Pattenville	2.2 miles	41
Burtts Crossing	2.3 miles	41
South Lowell	2.9 miles	41
Oaklands	3.1 miles	48

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 612246. 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.