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

West Orange, Massachusetts

32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Orange town. It lies in ZIP code area 01364. It stands on Orcutt Brook. The Survey maps it on the Orange quadrangle.

West Orange within Franklin County

Then and now

1887 to 1990

The same ground, surveyed 103 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 Orange, surveyed 1990

Topographic sheet of West Orange, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

32 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

25 since 2016

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 25 fires within 5 miles of West Orange between 2016 and 2020, burning about 8 acres in total. 1 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 burning	13
Smoking	5
Recreation and ceremony	4
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Natural	1
Railroad operations and maintenance	1

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
28 September 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 August 2020	Natural	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
18 June 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
17 June 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
14 June 2020	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
3 May 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 May 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
20 May 2020	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Franklin County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 971 shown

Museums hold 971 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Orange between 1856 and 1975: 480 Animalia, 200 Plantae, 180 Fungi, 111 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A S Pease, A. Cronquist, A. M. Ottley 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
Dryopteris spinulosa (O.F.Müll.) Watt	1896	Leonard, F.E.	Northfield, Mass.
Pyxine sorediata (Ach.) Mont.	1856	Charles C. Frost
unnamed (fossil)	1867	Othniel C. Marsh	Black shale (property of T. M. Stoughton, 1871 Beer County map, previously owned by Dr. Roswell Field) south side of Connecticut River, Horse Race, Montague
Rhexia virginica L.	1892	not recorded	Millers Falls
Dryopteris intermedia (Muhl. ex Willd.) A.Gray	1896	Leonard, F.E.	Northfield
Cyperus lupulinus var. macilentus (Fernald) A.Haines	1899	J. A. Bates	Miller's Falls
Caliciopsis pinea Peck	1928	Hansbrough J. R.	Athol
Catostomus commersonii (Lacepède, 1803)	1928	CL & LC Hubbs	Trib. of Miller's River, South Athol, NW border of Worcester Co., below a dam-pond, above res.; Connecticut system
Corticium confluens (Fr.) Fr.	1928	Hansbrough J. R.	Athol
Diatrype stigma (Hoffm.) Fr.	1928	Hansbrough J. R.	Athol
Etheostoma olmstedi Storer, 1842	1928	CL & LC Hubbs	Trib. of Miller's River, South Athol, NW border of Worcester Co., below a dam-pond, above res.; Connecticut system
Hymenochaete agglutinans Ellis	1928	Spaulding P.; Hansbrough J. R.	Athol

All 971 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 23 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 23 workings within 5 miles of West Orange: 11 occurrences, 6 past producers, 3 producers, 3 prospects. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Mica, Mica, Feldspar, Feldspar. 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
Almandine - Garnet Occurance	Gemstone, Garnet	Occurrence	Metamorphic
Almandine-Garnet Occurance	Garnet	Occurrence
Granite Quarry	Stone, Dimension	Occurrence
Granite Quarry	Granite	Past Producer
B L Frye Inc	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Frye Pit & Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Orange Mica Mine	Mica, Feldspar	Occurrence	1940
Orange Mica Mine	Mica, Feldspar	Occurrence
Pegmatite Quarry	Mica, Feldspar	Occurrence	Pegmatite
Pegmatite Quarry	Mica, Feldspar	Producer	Pegmatite

Every working recorded in Franklin County

Storms nearby

3 since 2020

The National Weather Service names West Orange in 3 storm reports between 2020 and 2023: 2 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
May 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	West Orange	$800	In Warwick, a tree and wires were down on Hockanum Road.
June 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	West Orange	$500	In Orange, a tree branch was down on wires on Warwick Road.
July 2023	Flash Flood	West Orange	-	In Orange, Dexter St had significant flooding.

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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Wendell Depot	1.0 miles	32
Orange	1.8 miles	32
Stoneville	2.2 miles	32
Erving	3.0 miles	32
North New Salem	3.8 miles	32
Morse Village	3.8 miles	32
Wendell	4.5 miles	32
North Orange	4.9 miles	34

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 609494. 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.