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

West Royalston, Massachusetts

36 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Royalston town. It lies in ZIP code area 01368. It stands on Butterworth Ridge. The Survey maps it on the Royalston quadrangle.

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

Topographic sheets covering this place

36 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

9 since 2004

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 9 fires within 5 miles of West Royalston between 2004 and 2020, burning about 6 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 burning4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1
Fireworks1
Arson/incendiarism1
Smoking1
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
22 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
15 September 2010Naturalunder an acreNew Hampshire Division of Forest and Landsnot named
10 August 2020Fireworks1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlTULLY MT FIRE
16 June 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
15 June 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
14 June 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
10 April 2017Debris and open burning2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
10 April 2004Arson/incendiarism1.5 acresMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 138 shown

Museums hold 138 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Royalston between 1856 and 1974: 55 Plantae, 49 Animalia, 34 Fungi. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. S. Goodale, S.F. Potsubay, F.R. St. John, Ahles, H. E., Ahles, H.E. 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 Osmunda regalis L.Osmunda regalis L.1900Bates, J.A.Royalston.
A photograph of the species Pyxine sorediata, not of this specimenPyxine sorediata (Ach.) Mont.1856Charles C. Frost
A photograph of the species Solidago uliginosa, not of this specimenSolidago uliginosa Nutt.1896G. T. HastingsTully. Tully Lake.
A photograph of the species Botrychium dissectum, not of this specimenBotrychium dissectum Spreng.1898not recorded
A photograph of the species Juncus nodosus, not of this specimenJuncus nodosus L.1898G. T. HastingsTully Lake.
A photograph of the species Antennaria howellii, not of this specimenAntennaria howellii subsp. canadensis (Greene) R.J.Bayer1899Bates, J.A.
A photograph of the species Bulbostylis capillaris, not of this specimenBulbostylis capillaris (L.) Kunth ex C.B.Clarke1899J. A. Bates
A photograph of the species Carex normalis, not of this specimenCarex normalis Mack.1899not recorded
A photograph of the species Carex pallescens, not of this specimenCarex pallescens L.1899J. A. Bates
A photograph of the species Carex radiata, not of this specimenCarex radiata (Wahlenb.) Small1899J. A. Bates
Cyperus lupulinus var. macilentus (Fernald) A.Haines1899not recorded
Lindernia dubia var. dubia1899not recorded

All 138 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

9 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of West Royalston: 3 occurrences, 3 prospects, 2 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Iron, Talc-Soapstone. 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
Talc QuarryTalc-SoapstoneProducerMetamorphic
Talc QuarryTalc-SoapstonePast Producer
Johnson Iron MineIronPast Producer
Magnetite - Emery ProspectIronOccurrenceMetamorphic
Magnetite - Emery ProspectIronOccurrenceMetamorphic
Magnetite - Emery ProspectIronOccurrenceMetamorphic
Magnetite-Emery ProspectIronProspect
Magnetite-Emery ProspectIronProspect
Magnetite-Emery ProspectIronProspect

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

1 since 2022

The National Weather Service names West Royalston in 1 storm report between 2022 and 2022: 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
July 2022Thunderstorm WindWest Royalston$800In Royalston, a large branch was down on wires on Athol-Richmond Road and a tree was down on Warwick Road.

Every storm 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
Baptist Corners1.3 miles34
Royalston3.3 miles36
Fryeville4.7 miles36
Pinedale5.7 miles32
Camp Caravan6.1 miles36
Neale Place6.4 miles36
South Royalston6.9 miles36
Athol6.9 miles32

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 Q122557618The 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 609734. 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.