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

Townsend Harbor, Massachusetts

42 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Townsend town. It lies in ZIP code area 01469. It stands on Bixby Brook. The Survey maps it on the Townsend quadrangle.

Townsend Harbor within Middlesex County

Then and now

1893 to 1988

The same ground, surveyed 95 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Townsend Harbor, surveyed 1988

Topographic sheet of Townsend Harbor, surveyed 1893

Compare 1893 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

42 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.

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Townsend town, in the words of 1908.

1908, Townsend Town

Lawyers And Physicians

In 1814, he married Roxanna Warren, daughter of Moses Warren. She survived him, and afterward married Elisha Glidden. Colonel Hastings died, June 6, 1821, and at his solicitation, he was buried with military honors, at Townsend Centre. The Townsend Light Infantry, Captain Levi Warren, was in attendance as a guard of honor, and discharged "the last farewell shot'' at the portals of his sepulchre.

Read the rest of this passage

In the 1908 county history

102,465 words on this township

The 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 Townsend Town covers the township.

Read the chapter on Townsend Town - 102,465 words.

Fires nearby

28 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 28 fires within 5 miles of Townsend Harbor between 2015 and 2020, burning about 8 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None 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 burning	16
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	7
Recreation and ceremony	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1
Natural	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
29 September 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
27 August 2015	Natural	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
25 July 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 July 2016	Recreation and ceremony	1.3 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	ANDOVER
9 May 2020	Power generation/transmission/distribution	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
9 May 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
7 May 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
24 May 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	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 nearby

12 of 183 shown

Museums hold 183 specimens collected within 10 miles of Townsend Harbor between 1900 and 1975: 62 Protozoa, 61 Animalia, 31 Plantae, 25 Fungi, 4 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. K. Moore, B. N. Gates, C. M. Litch 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
Pholiota carbonaria (Fr.) Singer	1900	H. Webster	Groton.
unnamed	1926	F.A. Gilbert
Anavitrinella pampinaria (Guenée, 1857)	1926	not recorded	Lunenburg
Arcyria cinerea (Bull.) Pers., 1801	1926	Collector unspecified
Arcyria denudata (L.) Wettst., 1886	1926	F.A. Gilbert
Alopecurus aequalis Sobol.	1930	M. L. Fernald; C. A. Weatherby
Epitheca cynosura (Say, 1840)	1930	Davis, E. M.	MA, Middlesex Co., Shirley
Hemaris thysbe Fabricius, 1775	1930	not recorded	Lunenburg
Coccyzus erythropthalmus (A.Wilson, 1811)	1950	Collector(s): James Lee Peters	Groton
Salix discolor Muhl.	1950	B. N. Gates	Leominster.
Salix humilis Marshall	1950	B. N. Gates	Leominster.
Salix sericea Marshall	1950	B. N. Gates	Bordering Leominster water supply; Fitchburg.

All 183 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

7 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Townsend Harbor: 6 past producers, 1 producer. 1 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.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Adams Excavating Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Harbor Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
R L Robichaud	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Robert L. Robichard Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Szocik Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Townsend Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Townsend Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms nearby

2 since 2020

The National Weather Service names Townsend Harbor in 2 storm reports between 2020 and 2024: 2 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Townsend Harbor	$5,000	In Townsend, trees, a utility pole, and power lines were down on Spaulding Street.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Townsend Harbor	$1,000	In Townsend, a tree and wires were down at the intersection of Haynes Rd and Trophy Ave.

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
Townsend	2.0 miles	42
South Row	2.1 miles	42
Old City	3.2 miles	42
Burkinshaws Factory	3.3 miles	39
Vose	3.5 miles	44
South Pepperell	3.6 miles	39
West Townsend	4.0 miles	42
West Groton	4.1 miles	44

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 610802. 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.