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

West Andover, Massachusetts

38 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Andover town. It lies in ZIP code area 01810. It stands on Indian Ridge. The Survey maps it on the Lawrence quadrangle.

West Andover within Essex 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 West Andover, surveyed 1988
Topographic sheet of West Andover, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

38 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.

Photographs

1 photograph, 1941

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

House in the Armenian settlement in West Andover, Massachusetts
House in the Armenian settlement in West Andover, Massachusetts
Delano, Jack, 1941. Library of Congress

Fires nearby

81 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 81 fires within 5 miles of West Andover between 2015 and 2020, burning about 26 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 5 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 burning17
Smoking17
Missing data/not specified/undetermined12
Misuse of fire by a minor8
Recreation and ceremony7
Power generation/transmission/distribution6
Arson/incendiarism5
Railroad operations and maintenance4
Equipment and vehicle use3
Natural2

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
24 September 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
14 September 2020Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
14 September 2016Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlNORTH ANDOVER
8 August 2016Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlLAWERANCE
8 August 2016Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlLAWERANCE
8 August 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlLAWERANCE
20 August 2016Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlLAWERANCE
14 August 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Essex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,721 shown

Museums hold 1,721 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Andover between 1816 and 1975: 801 Animalia, 776 Plantae, 126 Fungi, 5 Protozoa, 5 Bacteria, 4 Unrecorded, 4 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A Brown, A E Preble, A S Gaunt 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 Corylus americana WalterCorylus americana Walter1900E. F. Williams
Specimen of Populus grandidentata Michx.Populus grandidentata Michx.1900E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Lupinus L., not of this specimenLupinus L.1816Boott, F.M.B.Mystic Pond, 6 miles from Boston.
A photograph of the species Viola labradorica, not of this specimenViola labradorica Schrank1816not recordedAndover Turnpike, 6 miles from Boston U.S.A.
A photograph of the species Diphyscium foliosum, not of this specimenDiphyscium foliosum (Hedw.) D.Mohr1822ALCOTT
A photograph of the species Arcyria oerstedii, not of this specimenArcyria oerstedii Rostaf., 18751826F. A. Gilbert
A photograph of the species Eleocharis robbinsii, not of this specimenEleocharis robbinsii Oakes1829B. D. Greene
A photograph of the species Microspora stagnorum, not of this specimenMicrospora stagnorum (Kütz.) Lagerh.1848Collector unknownon willow trees, Willow[?] Road
A photograph of the species Carex debilis, not of this specimenCarex debilis var. rudgei L.H.Bailey1853Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Carex rostrata, not of this specimenCarex rostrata Stokes1853W. Boott
A photograph of the species Cyathus striatus, not of this specimenCyathus striatus Willd.1853not recordedAndover, Mass. [Massachusetts]
A photograph of the species Dichelyma capillaceum, not of this specimenDichelyma capillaceum (Dicks.) Myrin1853T. P. James

All 1,721 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 West Andover: 3 past producers, 2 producers, 1 unknown, 1 plant. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Nickel, Gold, Silver, Copper, Perlite. 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
Dracut Ni Mine/Nickel Mine HillNickel, Gold, Silver, CopperPast Producer
Wittemore Perlite PlantPerlitePlant
Brox QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
George Brox IncStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Rocco Zambino and Sons, Inc. PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Sand & Gravel OperationSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Essex County

Storms nearby

5 since 2017

The National Weather Service names West Andover in 5 storm reports between 2017 and 2022: 2 flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash flood. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
March 2022Thunderstorm WindWest Andover$1,500In Andover, trees were down at Shawsheen Square and also on High Street.
June 2021Thunderstorm WindWest Andover$500In Andover, a tree was down on Cross Street.
April 2019FloodWest Andover-At 7:07 AM EDT Lowell Street (State Route 133) at Arthur Road was flooded and impassable.
September 2018Flash FloodWest Andover-At 9:41 AM EST, Beacon Street in Andover was flooded in front of West Elementary School.
April 2017FloodWest Andover-At 7:58 PM EST, Beacon Street in front of West Elementary School was flooded.

Every storm recorded in Essex 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
Shawsheen Heights1.0 miles38
Shawsheen Village1.1 miles38
Andover1.1 miles38
West Parish1.5 miles38
Mount Vernon Park1.9 miles38
South Lawrence2.4 miles38
Ballardvale2.5 miles38
Haggetts2.9 miles38

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 612404. 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.