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

West Boxford, Massachusetts

40 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Boxford town. It lies in ZIP code area 01921. It stands on Foster Hill. The Survey maps it on the South Groveland quadrangle.

West Boxford 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 Boxford, surveyed 1988
Topographic sheet of West Boxford, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

40 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

72 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 72 fires within 5 miles of West Boxford between 2015 and 2020, burning about 28 acres in total. 1 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 burning21
Recreation and ceremony11
Smoking11
Missing data/not specified/undetermined8
Power generation/transmission/distribution7
Arson/incendiarism5
Equipment and vehicle use5
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Natural1
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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
4 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlGROVELAND
28 September 2019Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 September 2020Equipment and vehicle useunder 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
9 August 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlHAVERHILL
8 August 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlLAWERANCE
8 August 2016Debris and open burning1.5 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlGROVELAND

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Essex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,463 shown

Museums hold 1,463 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Boxford between 1816 and 1975: 701 Animalia, 596 Plantae, 154 Fungi, 5 Protozoa, 4 Chromista, 3 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A Brown, A S Gaunt, A. C. Mathieson 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 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 Dumetella carolinensis, not of this specimenDumetella carolinensis (Linnaeus, 1766)1833J.S. AppletonWest Newbury
A photograph of the species Glyceria obtusa, not of this specimenGlyceria obtusa (Muhl.) Trin.1838W Oakes
A photograph of the species Clethra alnifolia, not of this specimenClethra alnifolia L.1840OakesHerbariumRowley
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
A photograph of the species Isopterygiopsis pulchella, not of this specimenIsopterygiopsis pulchella (Hedw.) Z.Iwats.1853T. P. James
A photograph of the species Leskea polycarpa, not of this specimenLeskea polycarpa Hedw.1853T. P. James
A photograph of the species Ameiurus nebulosus, not of this specimenAmeiurus nebulosus (Lesueur, 1819)1859Weinland, David FriedrichEssex County, Massachusetts

All 1,463 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 11 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 11 workings within 5 miles of West Boxford: 8 past producers, 2 producers, 1 plant. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sulfur, Iron. 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
Georgetown MineIronPast Producer
Harriman MineSulfurPast Producer
Groveland PitStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Trimount Bituminous Prdts CoStone, Crushed/BrokenPlant
Center Street PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Peter H Arekalian QuarrySand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Pines Speedway PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
The Pines PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Torromeo Trucking CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Torromeo Trucking Co., Inc. PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Essex County

Storms nearby

2 since 2017

The National Weather Service names West Boxford in 2 storm reports between 2017 and 2019: 2 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
June 2019Thunderstorm WindWest Boxford$6,000At 1:25 PM EST a thunderstorm brought several trees down on wires on Great Pond Road in North Andover.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindWest Boxford$1,500At 134 PM EST, a tree was down on state route 133 in Boxford, blocking the road.

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
South Groveland2.5 miles40
Marble Ridge Station2.6 miles40
Stevens Crossing2.7 miles40
North Andover Center3.0 miles40
North Andover3.8 miles38
South Georgetown3.9 miles41
East Parish3.9 miles40
Riverside4.0 miles47

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 Q122568708The 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 612696. 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.