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

West Deerfield, Massachusetts

34 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1890 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Deerfield town. It lies in ZIP code area 01342. It stands on Mill Brook Stream. The Survey maps it on the Shelburne Falls quadrangle.

West Deerfield within Franklin County

Then and now

1890 to 1990

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.

Topographic sheet of West Deerfield, surveyed 1990
Topographic sheet of West Deerfield, surveyed 1890

Topographic sheets covering this place

34 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

35 since 2002

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 35 fires within 5 miles of West Deerfield between 2002 and 2020, burning about 43 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 burning22
Railroad operations and maintenance6
Recreation and ceremony3
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1
Equipment and vehicle use1
Smoking1

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
1 August 2017Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 June 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
31 May 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 May 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined20 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMATHEWS RIDGE FIRE
2 May 2018Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 April 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 April 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
30 April 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Franklin County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 5,947 shown

Museums hold 5,947 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Deerfield between 1822 and 1975: 3,219 Animalia, 1,496 Plantae, 1,079 Fungi, 115 Unrecorded, 33 Protozoa, 5 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A S Pease, A V Osmun, A. C. Smith 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
Specimen of Cardamine diphylla (Michx.) A.W.WoodCardamine diphylla (Michx.) A.W.Wood1900F. F. Forbes
A photograph of the species Ptilidium pulcherrimum, not of this specimenPtilidium pulcherrimum (Weber) Hampe1822Ebenezer Emmons
A photograph of the species Carex pauciflora, not of this specimenCarex pauciflora Lightf.1825Collector unspecifiedAshfield. [Inferred county from precise loc.]
A photograph of the species Cinna latifolia, not of this specimenCinna latifolia (Trevir. ex Göpp.) Griseb.1847Russell
A photograph of the species Juncus articulatus, not of this specimenJuncus articulatus L.1860E. TuckermanMill Hollow, near Amherst
unnamed (fossil)1867Othniel C. Marshblack sh, [property of T.M. Stoughton, 1871 Beers County map, previously owned by Dr. Roswell Field], S side of Connecticut River, Horse Race, Montague
A photograph of the species Brasenia peltata, not of this specimenBrasenia peltata Pursh1892not recordedLeverett
A photograph of the species Carex pedunculata, not of this specimenCarex pedunculata Muhl. ex Willd.1892J. R. ChurchillMount Toby
A photograph of the species Carex prasina, not of this specimenCarex prasina Wahlenb.1892J. R. ChurchillMontague
A photograph of the species Carex torta, not of this specimenCarex torta Boott1892J. R. ChurchillMontague
A photograph of the species Hedeoma pulegioides, not of this specimenHedeoma pulegioides (L.) Pers.1892not recordedMt. Toby
Rhexia virginica L.1892not recordedMillers Falls

All 5,947 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

9 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of West Deerfield: 4 past producers, 3 producers, 2 occurrences. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Barium-Barite, Limestone, General, Limestone, Dimension. 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
Limestone - Marble QuarryLimestone, GeneralProducer
Limestone - Marble QuarryLimestone, GeneralProducerMarble
Limestone-Marble QuarryLimestone, DimensionPast Producer
Limestone-Marble QuarryLimestone, DimensionPast Producer
Southwest Deerfield Barite OccurrenBarium-BariteOccurrence
Southwest Deerfield Barite Vein OccurrenceBarium-BariteOccurrenceBarite
East Deerfield Quarry and MillStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Town of Greenfield PitStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Warner Brothers IncStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Franklin County

Storms nearby

5 since 2017

The National Weather Service names West Deerfield in 5 storm reports between 2017 and 2024: 4 thunderstorm wind, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2020Thunderstorm WindWest Deerfield$70,000In Deerfield, a tree fell into a house, causing extensive damage, per an amateur radio report. Another tree caused house damage on Beaver Road, according to the Greenfield Recorder newspaper. A tree was down on wires on Mountain Road. A tree was down on Greenfield Road and a tree was down on Hillside Road. Wires were reported down on Oak Knoll Drive.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindWest Deerfield$2,500At 2 PM EST, two trees were down on Hoosac Road in Deerfield. One tree also brought wires down.
September 2023Thunderstorm WindWest Deerfield$800In Deerfield, there was a tree down on wires on Stillwater Rd.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindWest Deerfield$500In South Deerfield, a tree was reported down on a garage.
July 2023Flash FloodWest Deerfield-In Deerfield, a section of Stillwater Rd was washed out.

Every storm recorded in Franklin 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
Wapping1.3 miles32
Deerfield1.6 miles32
Mill River2.2 miles34
Bardwell3.0 miles34
Cheapside3.6 miles32
East Greenfield3.9 miles32
Conway4.0 miles34
South Deerfield4.0 miles42

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 Q122559311The 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 608685. 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.