West Fitchburg, Massachusetts

The same ground, surveyed 101 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1887 1988

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 Fitchburg quadrangle1:62500
• 1889 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:62500, 7 printings
• 1935 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
• 1936 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
• 1943 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:125000
• 1946 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:31680, 4 printings
• 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1953 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:50000
• 1954 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
• 1954 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:31680
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
• 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1969 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:24000
• 1969 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:25000
• 1975 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:25000
• 1984 USGS Lowell quadrangle1:100000
• 1988 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:25000
• 1988 USGS Lowell quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889 names this settlement in its chapter on Fitchburg City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 148 fires within 5 miles of West Fitchburg between 2015 and 2020, burning about 101 acres in total. 1 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:

• Fitchburg
• South Fitchburg
• Whalom
• Lunenburg
• Waites Corner
• Wachusett Station

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 739 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Fitchburg between 1870 and 1973: 284 Animalia, 264 Plantae, 174 Fungi, 8 Unrecorded, 6 Chromista, 3 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. F. Newton, A. Ferrett 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
	Porella platyphylla (L.) Pfeiff.	1895	James F. Collins	South spur, Mount Wachusett
	Athyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.Clausen	1900	Davenport	Pine Hill; Medford
	Carex maritima Gunnerus	1870	J. W. Congdon	Wellville
	Hylesinus aculeatus Say & T., 1824	1872	unknown	Fitchburg
	Carex foenea Willd.	1878	W. Boott	Wachusett Mountain
	Sibbaldiopsis tridentata (Aiton) Rydb.	1879	Bailey, W.W.	summit of Mt. Wachusett
	Papaver orientale L.	1880	unknown	Townsend.
	Hypericum gentianoides (L.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.	1881	Fredrick L Sargent	Lunenburg
	Botrychium multifidum (S.G.Gmel.) Rupr.	1882	Manning, Sara M.	Ashby
	Aecidium Pers.	1883	Sargent, F. L.	Lunenburg, Mass. [Massachusetts]
	Aulacomnium heterostichum (Hedw.) Bruch & Schimp.	1883	not recorded
	Arthuriomyces peckianus (Howe) Cummins & Y.Hirats.	1892	W. B. Hosmer

All 739 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of West Fitchburg: 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Tin, Lithium. 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 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 617267. 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.