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

Ward Corner, Massachusetts

44 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Westborough town. It lies in ZIP code area 01581. It stands on Vinal Hill. The Survey maps it on the Shrewsbury quadrangle.

Ward Corner within Worcester County

Then and now

1887 to 1989

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 Ward Corner, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Ward Corner, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

44 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

31 since 2002

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 31 fires within 5 miles of Ward Corner between 2002 and 2020, burning about 18 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined7
Smoking5
Power generation/transmission/distribution4
Recreation and ceremony4
Railroad operations and maintenance2
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
29 September 2018Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 August 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 July 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
18 July 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
10 July 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
7 June 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
13 June 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
13 June 2020Smokingunder 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 1,153 shown

Museums hold 1,153 specimens collected within 10 miles of Ward Corner between 1840 and 1975: 477 Plantae, 477 Animalia, 192 Fungi, 3 Protozoa, 2 Unrecorded, 2 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A E WOODHEAD, A. B. Seymour, A. H. Chivers 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 Sceptridium dissectum (Spreng.) LyonSceptridium dissectum (Spreng.) Lyon1899H. H. Scudder
A photograph of the species Carex laxiflora, not of this specimenCarex laxiflora Lam.1840Thomas NuttallCambridge.
A photograph of the species Carex vestita, not of this specimenCarex vestita Willd.1840Thomas NuttallCambridge.
A photograph of the species Geranium maculatum, not of this specimenGeranium maculatum L.1850not recorded
A photograph of the species Packera aurea, not of this specimenPackera aurea (L.) Á.Löve & D.Löve1850not recorded
A photograph of the species Cladrastis tinctoria, not of this specimenCladrastis tinctoria Raf.1856AnonymousCambridge.
A photograph of the species Coleataenia rigidula, not of this specimenColeataenia rigidula (Bosc ex Nees) LeBlond1858AnonymousCambridge.
A photograph of the species Quercus velutina, not of this specimenQuercus velutina Lam.1858E. S. HoarRoad to Marlboro, Concord.
A photograph of the species Condylura cristata, not of this specimenCondylura cristata cristata (Linnaeus, 1758)1859E S WheelerBERLIN
Arphia sulphurea (Fabricius, 1781)1892unknownWellesley
A photograph of the species Castilleja coccinea, not of this specimenCastilleja coccinea (L.) Spreng.1892E. C. SmithMarboro.
Elymus repens (L.) Gould1892Arthur B. SeymourCambridge.

All 1,153 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

4 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Ward Corner: 3 producers, 1 unknown. 3 still produce. 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.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Grafton PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Hopkinton PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Hopkinton PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Northboro PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working 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
Westborough1.2 miles42
Wessonville2.1 miles44
Axtell Corner3.2 miles45
North Grafton4.3 miles45
Northborough4.4 miles44
Grafton4.5 miles45
South Shrewsbury4.7 miles44
Kittville4.8 miles45

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1980579. 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.