West Brookfield, Massachusetts

West Brookfield fell from 1,413 to 1,375 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

The same ground, surveyed 98 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1887 1985

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.

• 1887 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1890 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1908 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000
• 1908 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000
• 1915 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1921 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1942 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000
• 1943 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1946 USGS Warren quadrangle1:31680
• 1946 USGS Warren quadrangle1:31680
• 1946 USGS Warren quadrangle1:31680
• 1948 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1954 USGS Warren quadrangle1:24000
• 1954 USGS Warren quadrangle1:24000
• 1954 USGS Warren quadrangle1:31680
• 1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1957 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1959 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1962 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1969 USGS Warren quadrangle1:24000
• 1969 USGS Warren quadrangle1:25000
• 1975 USGS Warren quadrangle1:25000
• 1982 USGS Warren quadrangle1:25000
• 1982 USGS Warren quadrangle1:25000
• 1985 USGS Holyoke quadrangle1:100000
• 1985 USGS Holyoke quadrangle1:100000

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.

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 35 fires within 5 miles of West Brookfield between 2015 and 2020, burning about 18 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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.

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:

• Brookfield
• Marks Garrison
• Warren
• East Brookfield
• North Brookfield
• South Spencer

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Museums hold 363 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Brookfield between 1857 and 1975: 192 Plantae, 86 Fungi, 83 Animalia, 2 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. F. Hill, H. St. John, G.S. Torrey, A. Lavallee, A. P. Chute 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
	Carex tenera var. tenera	1899	R. M. Harper
	Krigia virginica (L.) Willd.	1857	not recorded
	Carex cephalophora Muhl. ex Willd.	1858	J. Blake
	Carex vestita Willd.	1858	J. Blake	Ware
	Castilleja coccinea (L.) Spreng.	1858	A. P. Chute
	Celastrus scandens L.	1858	s.coll.
	Ranunculus flabellaris Raf.	1858	A. P. Chute
	Trifolium agrarium L.	1858	not recorded
	Zizia aurea (L.) W.D.J.Koch	1859	A. P. Chute
	Cladonia squamosa Hoffm.	1870	M.E.T.	Hardwick
	Nitella megacarpa (T.F.A.) R.D.W.	1894	G. E. Stern	Lake Lashaway
	Calosoma calidum (Fabricius, 1775)	1896	Knab, Frederick (1865-1918)	Massachusetts

All 363 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of West Brookfield: 3 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: 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.

Every working recorded in Worcester County

The National Weather Service names West Brookfield in 21 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 11 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 3 flood, 1 tornado. 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.

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.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 609864. 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.