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

West Hatfield, Massachusetts

42 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Hatfield town. It lies in ZIP code area 01088. It stands on Running Gutter. The Survey maps it on the Easthampton quadrangle.

West Hatfield within Hampshire County

Then and now

1885 to 1985

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 Hatfield, surveyed 1985

Topographic sheet of West Hatfield, surveyed 1885

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.

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Hatfield town, in the words of 1898.

1898, Hatfield Town

Introduction Xix

The letter referred to is in this volume. It is from Rev. Solomon Stoddard, then minister at Northampton, dated Sept. 15, 1675. It is a long letter, reciting minutely the movements of the contending forces in the valley. Stoddard tells of the disarming of the near-by Indians, August 24th, the affair at Sugar Loaf, August 25th, and says, "We heard no more of the Indians till the first of September, when they shot down a garrison soldier at Pocumtuck, that was looking after his horse, and ran violently up into the town, many people having scarcely time enough to get into the garrison: that day they burnt most of their houses and barns, the garrisons not being strong enough to sally out upon them, but killed two of their men from their forts." He gives a full account of the tragic events which accompanied the distruction of Northfield, September 2-6; the second attack on Deerfield September 12th; the relief expedition, September 13th, and the arrival of Captain Moseley at Hadley, September 14th.

Read the rest of this passage

Fires nearby

58 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 58 fires within 5 miles of West Hatfield between 2015 and 2020, burning about 42 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 4 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	19
Debris and open burning	15
Equipment and vehicle use	11
Recreation and ceremony	5
Arson/incendiarism	4
Natural	4

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
7 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
3 September 2016	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
2 September 2016	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
15 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
30 August 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
27 August 2016	Natural	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
14 August 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
5 July 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hampshire County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 9,598 shown

Museums hold 9,598 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Hatfield between 1781 and 1975: 3,608 Animalia, 3,423 Plantae, 2,321 Fungi, 138 Chromista, 94 Protozoa, 13 Unrecorded, 1 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A V Osmun, A., A. Albee 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
Cercospora violae Sacc.	1895	Ralph E. Smith	Hothouse, Mass. Agr. College, Amherst
Actias luna Linnaeus, 1758	1896	not recorded
Plathemis lydia (Drury, 1773)	1896	not recorded
Carex argyrantha Tuck. ex Dewey	1781	H. G. Jesup	Amherst in Hampshire Co., and Leverett in Franklin Co., Massachusetts. [Inferred counties from precise loc.]
Carex foenea Willd.	1781	H. G. Jesup	And Leverett
Ustilago nuda (C.N.Jensen) Kellerm. & Swingle	1810	J.E. Humphrey
Ranunculus ambigens S.Watson	1831	S. Shurtleff
Kalmia angustifolia f. angustifolia	1838	L. DeWette	Northampton.
Kalmia latifolia var. latifolia	1838	L. DeWette	Northampton.
Pogonia ophioglossoides (L.) Ker Gawl.	1838	L. DeWette	Northampton.
Dactylis glomerata L.	1839	S J Ewer
Solidago arguta Aiton	1841	Collector(s): Henry Holmes Babcock, Henry Griswold Jesup	Amherst

All 9,598 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 22 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 22 workings within 5 miles of West Hatfield: 9 producers, 9 past producers, 2 occurrences, 2 prospects. 9 still produce. What was taken out: Brick Clay, Lead, Clay, Stone, Dimension. 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
Hatfield Lead Mine	Barium-Barite, Lead, Zinc	Past Producer	Vein
Hatfield Lead Mine	Barium-Barite, Zinc, Lead	Producer	Barite, Galena, Sphalerite
Hatfield Lead Mine	Barium-Barite, Lead, Zinc	Past Producer
Whately - Williamsburg Lead Veins	Lead, Manganese	Occurrence	Galena
Granite Rock Quarry	Stone, Dimension	Producer
Granite Rock Quarry	Granite	Past Producer
Granite Rock Quarry	Stone, Dimension	Producer
Granite Rock Quarry	Granite	Past Producer
Whately Lead Vein Occurrence	Lead, Manganese	Occurrence	Galena
Whately-Williamsburg Lead Prospect	Lead, Manganese	Prospect

Every working recorded in Hampshire County

Storms nearby

1 since 2024

The National Weather Service names West Hatfield in 1 storm report between 2024 and 2024: 1 thunderstorm wind. 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 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	West Hatfield	$500	In Hatfield, trees and wires were downed on Pantry Rd.

Every storm recorded in Hampshire 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
Laurel Park	0.9 miles	42
North Farms	1.9 miles	42
Hatfield	2.1 miles	44
North Hatfield	2.9 miles	42
Westbrook	2.9 miles	42
Florence	3.1 miles	42
North Hadley	3.1 miles	42
Northampton	3.2 miles	42

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 Q122543166

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 608820. 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.