Tower Hill, Massachusetts
46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Wayland town. It lies in ZIP code area 01778. It stands on Hayward Brook. The Survey maps it on the Natick quadrangle.
Then and now
1886 to 1989The 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 sheets covering this place
46 sheetsMatched 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.
- 1886 USGS Framingham quadrangle1:62500
- 1889 USGS Framingham quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Framingham quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Framingham quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Framingham quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Framingham quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Framingham quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Framingham quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Framingham quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Framingham quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Framingham quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Framingham quadrangle1:62500
- 1894 USGS Framingham quadrangle1:62500
- 1918 USGS Framingham quadrangle1:62500
- 1918 USGS Framingham quadrangle1:62500
- 1943 USGS Boston quadrangle1:125000
- 1943 USGS Natick quadrangle1:31680
- 1943 USGS Natick quadrangle1:31680
- 1943 USGS Natick quadrangle1:31680
- 1943 USGS Natick quadrangle1:31680
- 1943 USGS Natick quadrangle1:31680
- 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
- 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
- 1950 USGS Natick quadrangle1:24000
- 1950 USGS Natick quadrangle1:24000
- 1950 USGS Natick quadrangle1:31680
- 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Natick quadrangle1:24000
- 1958 USGS Natick quadrangle1:24000
- 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
- 1970 USGS Natick quadrangle1:24000
- 1970 USGS Natick quadrangle1:25000
- 1977 USGS Natick quadrangle1:25000
- 1985 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000
- 1987 USGS Framingham quadrangle1:25000
- 1987 USGS Framingham quadrangle1:25000
- 1989 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000
- 1989 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000
In the 1908 county history
21,245 words on this townshipThe county history of 1908 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for the smaller places. Its township is covered in full.
The chapter on Wayland Town covers the township.
Read the chapter on Wayland Town - 21,245 words.
Fires nearby
80 since 1995The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 80 fires within 5 miles of Tower Hill between 1995 and 2020, burning about 57 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 9 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 | 29 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 23 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 9 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 7 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 5 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 3 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Other causes | 1 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 September 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 5 September 2020 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 4 September 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 23 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 22 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 3 August 2020 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 28 August 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | FRAMINGHAM |
| 24 August 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Specimens collected nearby
12 of 1,789 shownMuseums hold 1,789 specimens collected within 10 miles of Tower Hill between 1898 and 1975: 1,135 Animalia, 339 Plantae, 297 Fungi, 9 Chromista, 6 Protozoa, 2 Bacteria, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A. B. Seymour, A. B. Seymour & M. D. Feigley 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 | 1900 | not recorded | Wayland |
![]() | Actaea pachypoda Elliott | 1898 | Ernest Charles Smith | |
| Aglaospora profusa (Fr.) De Not. | 1898 | Collector unspecified | ||
![]() | Antennaria howellii subsp. canadensis (Greene) R.J.Bayer | 1898 | Williams, E.F. | |
![]() | Antennaria parlinii subsp. fallax (Greene) R.J.Bayer & Stebbins | 1898 | not recorded | |
![]() | Antennaria plantaginifolia (L.) Hook. | 1898 | not recorded | |
![]() | Agaricus brunnescens Peck | 1900 | Morris, G. E. | Waltham |
![]() | Agonopterix atrodorsella Clemens, 1863 | 1900 | E. J. Smith | Sherborn |
![]() | Apantesis Walker, 1855 | 1900 | E. J. Smith | Sherborn |
![]() | Apatelodes torrefacta J.E.Smith, 1797 | 1900 | E. J. Smith | Sherborn |
| Araiospora pulchra Thaxt. | 1900 | Thaxter, Roland | Stony Brook, Mass. [Massachusetts] | |
![]() | Archips cerasivorana (Fitch, 1856) | 1900 | E. J. Smith | Sherborn |
All 1,789 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Mines and quarries nearby
10 of 13 shownThe federal mineral resources record lists 13 workings within 5 miles of Tower Hill: 10 past producers, 2 producers, 1 unknown. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Peat. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panlini Loam Co | Peat | Past Producer | Peat | |
| Massachusetts Broken Stone Co | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Weston Mine | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Arthur Scofield Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Burton Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Framington Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Hi-Way Pit and Mill | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| New England Sand & Grv Co. Pit & Pl | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Pepperell Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Sand & Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wayland | 1.3 miles | 46 | |
| Weston | 1.9 miles | 46 | |
| Weston Station | 2.4 miles | 46 | |
| Silver Hill | 2.7 miles | 48 | |
| Camp Mary Day | 2.9 miles | 46 | |
| Hastings | 2.9 miles | 48 | |
| Kendal Green | 3.1 miles | 48 | |
| South Lincoln | 3.2 miles | 48 |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 612009. 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.























































