West Auburn, Massachusetts

The same ground, surveyed 100 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1889 1989

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.

• 1889 USGS Webster quadrangle1:62500
• 1892 USGS Webster quadrangle1:62500, 9 printings
• 1908 USGS Quinsigamond quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
• 1921 USGS Webster quadrangle1:62500
• 1935 USGS Millbury quadrangle1:24000
• 1939 USGS Worcester South quadrangle1:31680, 4 printings
• 1943 USGS Quinsigamond quadrangle1:125000
• 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1948 USGS Worcester South quadrangle1:24000
• 1948 USGS Worcester South quadrangle1:31680
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
• 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1960 USGS Worcester South quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
• 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1973 USGS Worcester South quadrangle1:25000
• 1973 USGS Worcester South quadrangle1:24000
• 1975 USGS Worcester South quadrangle1:25000
• 1983 USGS Worcester South quadrangle1:25000, 2 printings
• 1985 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000
• 1989 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889 names this settlement in its chapter on Auburn Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 78 fires within 5 miles of West Auburn between 2015 and 2020, burning about 57 acres in total. None 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.

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Cominsville
• Oxford Heights
• Camp Neyati
• Cherry Valley
• Greenville
• Jamesville

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,717 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Auburn between 1839 and 1974: 980 Plantae, 454 Animalia, 259 Fungi, 16 Unrecorded, 4 Chromista, 4 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A E WOODHEAD, A. A. Eaton, A. B. Seymour 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	Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
	Sceptridium dissectum (Spreng.) Lyon	1899	H. H. Scudder
	Ochrolechia tartarea (L.) A.Massal.	1839	E. Tuckerman
	Carex laxiflora Lam.	1840	Thomas Nuttall	Cambridge.
	Carex vestita Willd.	1840	Thomas Nuttall	Cambridge.
	Mycobilimbia hypnorum (Lib.) Kalb & Hafellner	1848	E. Tuckerman
	Cladonia cornucopioides F.Wilson	1850	J. L. Russell	Leicester
	Geranium maculatum L.	1850	not recorded
	Packera aurea (L.) Á.Löve & D.Löve	1850	not recorded
	Carex aperta Boott	1853	W. Boott	Massachusetts
	Elymus repens (L.) Gould	1892	Arthur B. Seymour	Cambridge.
	Festuca pratensis Huds.	1892	Arthur B. Seymour	Cambridge.
	Hepatica americana (DC.) Ker Gawl.	1892	Clarence Kinney

All 1,717 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 19 workings within 5 miles of West Auburn: 15 past producers, 3 producers, 1 plant. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Iron. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names West Auburn in 1 storm report in 2018: 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.

Every storm recorded in Worcester County

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 610720. 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.