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

West Hawley, Massachusetts

34 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1998. It lies in ZIP code area 01070. The Survey maps it on the Plainfield quadrangle.

West Hawley within Franklin County

Then and now

1886 to 1998

The same ground, surveyed 112 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 Hawley, surveyed 1998
Topographic sheet of West Hawley, surveyed 1886

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

4 since 2016

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of West Hawley between 2016 and 2020, burning about 3 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 burning2
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1
Recreation and ceremony1

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
13 June 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 May 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
12 May 2016Recreation and ceremony2.5 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 April 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder 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 386 shown

Museums hold 386 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Hawley between 1825 and 1975: 183 Plantae, 140 Fungi, 60 Animalia, 2 Chromista, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. Gurney, A. M. Rogers, A. R. Hodgdon; H. Bigelow;R. Livingstone 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 Carex pauciflora, not of this specimenCarex pauciflora Lightf.1825Collector unspecifiedAshfield. [Inferred county from precise loc.]
A photograph of the species Veratrum viride, not of this specimenVeratrum viride subsp. viride1847not recordedBrunswick and Goshen
A photograph of the species Halenia deflexa, not of this specimenHalenia deflexa (Sm.) Griseb.1868Collector(s): Henry Griswold JesupCummington
A photograph of the species Botrychium matricariifolium, not of this specimenBotrychium matricariifolium (Döll) A.Braun ex Koch1873H. G. Jesup
Botrychium virginianum subsp. typicum R.T.Clausen1873Jesup, H.G.Goshen.
A photograph of the species Phegopteris connectilis, not of this specimenPhegopteris connectilis (Michx.) Watt1873H. G. Jesup
A photograph of the species Botrychium lanceolatum, not of this specimenBotrychium lanceolatum (S.G.Gmel.) Ångstr.1874H. G. Jesup
A photograph of the species Lithobates clamitans, not of this specimenLithobates clamitans (Latreille, 1801)1892not recordedWorthington
A photograph of the species Lithobates palustris, not of this specimenLithobates palustris (LeConte, 1825)1892not recordedWorthington
A photograph of the species Juglans cinerea, not of this specimenJuglans cinerea L.1895C. W. TrowBuckland.
A photograph of the species Cryptomycina pteridis, not of this specimenCryptomycina pteridis (Rebent.) Höhn.1927S. Bache-Wiig

All 386 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

8 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of West Hawley: 3 occurrences, 3 past producers, 1 producer, 1 prospect. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Manganese, Talc-Soapstone, Iron, Gemstone. 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
Betts Manganese MinesManganese, Iron, GemstoneProducer1830, 1925
Betts Mn Mines TaconicManganese, IronPast Producer
Packard Manganese OccurrenceMica, FeldsparOccurrenceFeldspar, Mica
Talc ProspectTalc-SoapstoneOccurrenceMetamorphic
Talc ProspectTalc-SoapstoneProspect
Anson Betts Manganese MineManganesePast Producer1938
Frizzell PitManganesePast Producer
Packard Manganese OccurrenceManganeseOccurrence

Every working recorded in Franklin County

Storms nearby

1 since 2023

The National Weather Service names West Hawley in 1 storm report between 2023 and 2023: 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
September 2023Thunderstorm WindWest Hawley$500In Hawley, there was a tree down on West Hawley Rd.

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
Hallockville1.7 miles34
King Corner2.6 miles34
South Hawley2.6 miles34
Hawley4.5 miles34
Watson4.8 miles32
Spruce Corner5.6 miles32
Dodge Corner7.4 miles32
Buckland Four Corners8.0 miles32

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 607984. 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.