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

West Acton, Massachusetts

43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Acton town. It lies in ZIP code area 01720. It stands on Wright Hill. The Survey maps it on the Maynard quadrangle.

West Acton within Middlesex County

Then and now

1886 to 1989

The 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 sheet of West Acton, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of West Acton, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

43 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

37 since 2004

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 37 fires within 5 miles of West Acton between 2004 and 2020, burning about 23 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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 burning24
Missing data/not specified/undetermined5
Arson/incendiarism2
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Equipment and vehicle use2
Smoking1
Recreation and ceremony1

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
13 August 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSTOW
2 July 2017Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
15 July 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 June 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 May 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 May 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 May 2020Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 May 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 614 shown

Museums hold 614 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Acton between 1898 and 1975: 381 Animalia, 170 Plantae, 58 Fungi, 2 Chromista, 2 Protozoa, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. B. Seymour & M. D. Feigley, A. C. Gibson 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 Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 18221900not recordedWayland
A photograph of the species Boletus griseus, not of this specimenBoletus griseus Frost1898H. Webster
A photograph of the species Dumetella carolinensis, not of this specimenDumetella carolinensis (Linnaeus, 1766)1898Collector(s): Will C. ColtLincoln
A photograph of the species Lophodermium pinastri, not of this specimenLophodermium pinastri (Schrad.) Chevall.1898Hubbard F. T.; Hall G. G.Lincoln
A photograph of the species Pipilo erythrophthalmus, not of this specimenPipilo erythrophthalmus erythrophthalmus (Linnaeus, 1758)1898not recordedLincoln
A photograph of the species Salix eriocephala, not of this specimenSalix eriocephala Michx.1898E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Viola brittoniana, not of this specimenViola brittoniana Pollard1898Henry A. Purdie
A photograph of the species Aythya marila, not of this specimenAythya marila nearctica Stejneger, 18851899Schiøler, Eiler Theodor LehnMassachusetts
A photograph of the species Chrysosplenium americanum, not of this specimenChrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook.1899E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Boletus auriporus, not of this specimenBoletus auriporus Peck1900G. E. Morris
A photograph of the species Boletus rubropunctus, not of this specimenBoletus rubropunctus Peck1900G. E. Morris
A photograph of the species Cephalanthus occidentalis, not of this specimenCephalanthus occidentalis L.1900M. RodmanConcord.

All 614 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 18 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 18 workings within 5 miles of West Acton: 11 past producers, 5 producers, 1 unknown, 1 occurrence. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Kyanite. 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
Oak Hill Andalusite OccurrenceKyaniteOccurrenceMetamorphic
Acton PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Acton Pit--Assabet S & GSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Acton PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Assabet Sand and Gravel CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Boxborough PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Britt ConstructionSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Britt PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
D. B. Raymond Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Kennedy Brothers Acton Sand and GraSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary

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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Kelly Corner1.1 miles43
South Acton1.6 miles43
Boxboro Station2.2 miles43
Acton2.3 miles43
Lower Village2.9 miles43
Damons Mills Westvale3.0 miles43
New Town (historical)3.0 miles43
Boxboro3.0 miles43

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 611516. 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.