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

Wamesit, Massachusetts

48 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. The Survey maps it on the Lowell quadrangle.

Wamesit 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 Wamesit, surveyed 1988

Topographic sheet of Wamesit, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

48 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.

Almost immediately after the incorporation of the town in 17^3 1 efforts were made for the establishment and maintenance of religious worship. Although there is no distinct statement to that effect, it is to be inferred that preaching services were regularly held at some private house previous to the erection of the meeting-liouse.

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

tliere are a few exceptions to tliis rule, where the land is of the best quality. As we approach the northern part the ground rises, and assumes a better character. The beauty of the scenery is also superior in that part. The surface of the town is also somewhat uneven, there being several considerable hills, of which the most conspicuous is Prospect Hill, near the Andover line, which much adorns the town ; also Snake Hill, near the line of Wilmington. In addition to the Merrimack and Concord rivers, washing its western and northern banks, the Shawshine runs through the southern and easterly sections, and with Strongwater and Beaver brooks, and Long and Round ponds, furnish a good variety and quantity of the small fish that usually inhabit our New England streams.

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

for patriotism by rallying with the entire North when it sprang to the defence of the Union, - just as almost a century previous we find in the town records votes to raise and pay troops, the levying of assessments to defray the extraordinary expenses of war, and all the unusual events which betray the presence of a great conflict. Costly sacrifices in the lives of fellow-townsmen were paid as the price of liberty, and to preserve the government so heroically founded in the days of the fathers. The town did what it could; and thus, although no names celebrated in martial story are hers, she contributed her portion to achieve tlie peace which it is fondly hoped will be perpetual.

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 3 more 3 times.

Fires near this place

117 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 117 fires within 5 miles of Wamesit between 2001 and 2020, burning about 60 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 20 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	33
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	33
Arson/incendiarism	20
Recreation and ceremony	11
Equipment and vehicle use	4
Smoking	4
Natural	4
Misuse of fire by a minor	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	3
Railroad operations and maintenance	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
6 September 2002	Smoking	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
18 August 2002	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
17 August 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
17 August 2002	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
17 August 2002	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
14 August 2002	Natural	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
26 July 2002	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
23 July 2016	Power generation/transmission/distribution	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	ANDOVER

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 578 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 578 specimens collected within 10 miles of Wamesit between 1898 and 1975: 381 Plantae, 159 Animalia, 32 Fungi, 3 Chromista, 2 Protozoa, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. Mathieson, A. F. Newton, A. F. Newton, M. K. Thayer 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
Esox americanus Gmelin, 1789	1898	E. Preble	Maple Meadow Brook near Wilmington, Massachusetts
Exosporium pusillum P.Karst.	1898	King C. A.	Stony Brook
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
Bidens cernua L.	1899	E. F. Williams
Dichanthelium oligosanthes subsp. scribnerianum (Nash) Freckmann & Lelong	1899	E. F. Williams
Araiospora pulchra Thaxt.	1900	Thaxter, R.	Stony Brook
Betula alleghaniensis Britton	1900	E. F. Williams
Betula nigra L.	1900	not recorded

All 578 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 16 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 16 workings within 5 miles of Wamesit: 7 past producers, 5 producers, 3 plants, 1 unknown. 8 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 Deposit	Cobalt, Nickel	Past Producer	1876, 1939
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
Amasa W Brown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Amasa W. Brown Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Dracut Pit and Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Glenview Sand and Gravel Corp. Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working 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
North Tewksbury	1.1 miles	38
South Lowell	1.3 miles	41
Oaklands	1.3 miles	48
Belvidere	1.7 miles	48
Tewksbury	1.8 miles	41
Bleachery	2.1 miles	48
Kenwood	2.5 miles	48
Ayres City	2.6 miles	48

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 611886. 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.