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

West Fitchburg, Massachusetts

42 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Fitchburg City. It lies in ZIP code area 01420. It stands on Whitman River. The Survey maps it on the Fitchburg quadrangle.

West Fitchburg within Worcester County

Then and now

1887 to 1988

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.

Topographic sheet of West Fitchburg, surveyed 1988
Topographic sheet of West Fitchburg, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

42 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

148 since 2015

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.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning59
Missing data/not specified/undetermined58
Smoking18
Recreation and ceremony5
Fireworks3
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Equipment and vehicle use1
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Arson/incendiarism1
Natural1

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
8 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
7 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 September 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.4 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMONOOSNOC HILL

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 739 shown

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 SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
Specimen of Porella platyphylla (L.) Pfeiff.Porella platyphylla (L.) Pfeiff.1895James F. CollinsSouth spur, Mount Wachusett
Specimen of Athyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.ClausenAthyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.Clausen1900DavenportPine Hill; Medford
A photograph of the species Carex maritima, not of this specimenCarex maritima Gunnerus1870J. W. CongdonWellville
A photograph of the species Hylesinus aculeatus, not of this specimenHylesinus aculeatus Say & T., 18241872unknownFitchburg
A photograph of the species Carex foenea, not of this specimenCarex foenea Willd.1878W. BoottWachusett Mountain
A photograph of the species Sibbaldiopsis tridentata, not of this specimenSibbaldiopsis tridentata (Aiton) Rydb.1879Bailey, W.W.summit of Mt. Wachusett
A photograph of the species Papaver orientale, not of this specimenPapaver orientale L.1880unknownTownsend.
A photograph of the species Hypericum gentianoides, not of this specimenHypericum gentianoides (L.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.1881Fredrick L SargentLunenburg
A photograph of the species Botrychium multifidum, not of this specimenBotrychium multifidum (S.G.Gmel.) Rupr.1882Manning, Sara M.Ashby
A photograph of the species Aecidium Pers., not of this specimenAecidium Pers.1883Sargent, F. L.Lunenburg, Mass. [Massachusetts]
A photograph of the species Aulacomnium heterostichum, not of this specimenAulacomnium heterostichum (Hedw.) Bruch & Schimp.1883not recorded
Arthuriomyces peckianus (Howe) Cummins & Y.Hirats.1892W. B. Hosmer

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

Mines and quarries nearby

1 within 5 miles

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.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Fitchburg AreaTin, LithiumOccurrence

Every working recorded in Worcester 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
Waites Corner0.9 miles42
Wachusett Station1.2 miles42
Fitchburg2.1 miles42
Wachusett2.9 miles42
South Fitchburg3.2 miles42
Whitmanville3.2 miles40
Mantyranta3.3 miles40
Bakers Grove3.5 miles40

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 Q122572607The 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 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.