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

West Chelmsford, Massachusetts

43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Chelmsford town. It lies in ZIP code area 01863. It stands on Crooked Springs Brook. The Survey maps it on the Westford quadrangle.

West Chelmsford within Middlesex 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 Chelmsford, surveyed 1988

Topographic sheet of West Chelmsford, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

43 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

62 since 2002

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 62 fires within 5 miles of West Chelmsford between 2002 and 2020, burning about 35 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 7 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	25
Debris and open burning	18
Recreation and ceremony	7
Arson/incendiarism	7
Smoking	2
Natural	1
Other causes	1
Railroad operations and maintenance	1

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

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
6 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
6 September 2002	Smoking	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
26 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
5 August 2002	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
4 August 2002	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
18 August 2002	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
17 August 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
17 August 2002	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 565 shown

Museums hold 565 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Chelmsford between 1898 and 1975: 355 Plantae, 131 Animalia, 46 Fungi, 29 Protozoa, 3 Chromista, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. F. Newton, A. F. Newton, M. K. Thayer 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.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Exosporium pusillum P.Karst.	1898	King C. A.	Stony Brook
Aristida dichotoma Michx.	1899	E. F. Williams
Arthrosporium compositum Ellis	1899	Rorer	East Billerica
Bidens cernua L.	1899	E. F. Williams
Fuirena pumila (Torr.) Spreng.	1899	E. F. Williams
Galium tinctorium (L.) Scop.	1899	not recorded
Menispora libertiana Sacc. & Roum. ex Sacc.	1899	Rorer	East Billerica
Muhlenbergia uniflora (Muhl.) Fernald	1899	E. F. Williams
Oryzopsis asperifolia Michx.	1899	E. F. Williams
Araiospora pulchra Thaxt.	1900	Thaxter, R.	Stony Brook
Boletus frostii J.L.Russell	1900	A. W. Flint
Polygala sanguinea L.	1900	E. F. Williams

All 565 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 30 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 30 workings within 5 miles of West Chelmsford: 17 past producers, 8 producers, 5 plants. 13 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Granite, Graphite, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Chelmsford Mill	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Plant
West Chelmsford Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Avaco Corp--Lowell, Ma.	Graphite	Plant
Fiber Matls Plant--Graniteville, Ma	Graphite	Plant
Stackpole Fibers Co--Lowell, Ma.	Graphite	Plant
Fletcher Westford Quarry	Granite	Producer
Forest Road Quarry	Granite	Past Producer
Guilmette Bros Granite	Granite	Past Producer	Granite
H E Fletcher Co	Granite	Past Producer	Granite
Le Masurier Granite Quarry Inc	Granite	Past Producer	Granite

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms nearby

13 since 2008

The National Weather Service names West Chelmsford in 13 storm reports between 2008 and 2024: 9 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 flood, 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	West Chelmsford	$45,000	Trees and power lines on Jonathan Lane, Warren Avenue and Spaulding Road were downed by thunderstorm winds. A tree in Chelmsford center and another on Boston Road were downed onto cars.
September 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	West Chelmsford	$20,000	Trees were downed onto Chelmsford Street. Large limbs were downed throughout town. An air conditioning unit was blown off its support on an office roof, but remained on the roof. Trees were downed on Route 110 near Interstate 495.
July 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	West Chelmsford	$15,000	Three trees at the intersection of Grandview and Locke Roads were downed by thunderstorm winds.
February 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	West Chelmsford	$10,000	Two large trees on Warren Avenue in Chelmsford were downed by thunderstorm winds.
September 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	West Chelmsford	$8,000	Trees and power lines on Pine Hill Road were downed by thunderstorm winds. A large maple tree on Meehan Drive was downed onto a roof, destroying a portion of the chimney.
September 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	West Chelmsford	$5,000	In Chelmsford, numerous trees were down and snapped. Straight line SW to NE after the heavy rainfall.
August 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	West Chelmsford	$5,000	Several trees were downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	West Chelmsford	$2,000	In Chelmsford, there were reports of trees and wires down all over town.
May 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	West Chelmsford	$500	A tree was downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2023	Flash Flood	West Chelmsford	$200	In North Chelmsford at 445 PM EDT (345 PM EST), Middlesex Street at Cedar Street was closed due to flooding. At 446 PM EDT, significant street flooding was reported on Old Westford Road behind the police station, per police department...relayed by amateur radio.
August 2023	Flood	West Chelmsford	-	In Chelmsford, there was significant street flooding on Rt 110.
July 2020	Hail	West Chelmsford	-	In Chelmsford, dime sized hail was reported.
August 2011	Hail	West Chelmsford	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Middlesex 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Brookside Station	0.8 miles	43
Nabnasset	1.1 miles	43
Whidden Corner	1.3 miles	50
North Chelmsford	1.8 miles	50
Chelmsford	2.1 miles	41
Westford Station	2.3 miles	43
Princeton Village	2.5 miles	48
Camp Cielo Celeste	2.6 miles	43

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 Q122541014

The 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 611300. 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.