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

West Becket, Massachusetts

38 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Becket town. It lies in ZIP code area 01223. It stands on Shales Brook. The Survey maps it on the East Lee quadrangle.

West Becket within Berkshire County

Then and now

1886 to 1997

The same ground, surveyed 111 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 Becket, surveyed 1997
Topographic sheet of West Becket, 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.

Fires nearby

8 since 2006

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of West Becket between 2006 and 2020, burning about 4 acres in total. None started naturally. None 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 burning5
Smoking1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
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
29 August 2017Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
29 July 2017Recreation and ceremony2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
6 April 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 April 2019Smoking1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 April 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
16 April 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
10 April 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 October 2006Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Berkshire County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 2,110 shown

Museums hold 2,110 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Becket between 1833 and 1975: 1,256 Animalia, 551 Plantae, 295 Fungi, 3 Protozoa, 3 Unrecorded, 2 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. E. Treat, A. K. Harrison, A. M. Vail 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
A photograph of the species Betula alleghaniensis, not of this specimenBetula alleghaniensis Britton1833Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Betula pumila, not of this specimenBetula pumila L.1833Collector unspecified
A photograph of the species Carex utriculata, not of this specimenCarex utriculata Boott1833W. L. Worcester
A photograph of the species Dennstaedtia punctilobula, not of this specimenDennstaedtia punctilobula (Michx.) T.Moore1833Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Gymnocarpium dryopteris, not of this specimenGymnocarpium dryopteris (L.) Newman1833Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Parnassia caroliniana, not of this specimenParnassia caroliniana Michx.1834not recorded
A photograph of the species Homalia trichomanoides, not of this specimenHomalia trichomanoides (Hedw.) Schimp.1867E. C. Howe
A photograph of the species Asplenium rhizophyllum, not of this specimenAsplenium rhizophyllum L.1871Faxon, W.Lenox
A photograph of the species Lygodium palmatum, not of this specimenLygodium palmatum (Bernh.) Sw.1872Miller, E.S.East Hampton
A photograph of the species Acer saccharum, not of this specimenAcer saccharum Marshall1897Vail, A.M.Tyringham
A photograph of the species Acer spicatum, not of this specimenAcer spicatum Lam.1897Vail, A.M.Vicinity of Tyringham
A photograph of the species Acorus calamus, not of this specimenAcorus calamus L.1897Vail, A.M.vicnity of Tyringham

All 2,110 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

2 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of West Becket: 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Calcium, 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
East Lee PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Lee Lime CorpCalciumPast ProducerCalcite

Every working recorded in Berkshire County

Storms nearby

2 since 2001

The National Weather Service names West Becket in 2 storm reports between 2001 and 2015: 1 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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
May 2015Thunderstorm WindWest Becket-A tree was reported down on the Becket-Lee Town Line on Route 20 due to thunderstorm winds.
June 2001HailWest Becket-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Berkshire 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
North Otis2.7 miles37
Camp Becket3.5 miles37
Camp Chimney Corners3.6 miles37
Tyringham3.8 miles38
Leisure Lee4.0 miles38
Becket Center4.0 miles37
Indian Lake Estates4.1 miles37
Camp Greylock4.4 miles37

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikidata item Q122542493The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 607801. 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.