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

West Sterling, Massachusetts

46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Sterling town. It lies in ZIP code area 01564. It stands on Bailey Brook. The Survey maps it on the Sterling quadrangle.

West Sterling within Worcester County

Then and now

1885 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 104 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 Sterling, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of West Sterling, surveyed 1885

Topographic sheets covering this place

46 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

44 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 44 fires within 5 miles of West Sterling between 2015 and 2020, burning about 99 acres in total. None 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 burning21
Missing data/not specified/undetermined15
Recreation and ceremony6
Arson/incendiarism1
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
2 August 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 July 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 July 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 July 2016Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 July 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 July 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 July 2016Recreation and ceremony6.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 689 shown

Museums hold 689 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Sterling between 1848 and 1973: 398 Plantae, 157 Animalia, 121 Fungi, 5 Chromista, 4 Unrecorded, 4 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. Ferrett, A. G. Chandler 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
Specimen of Pooecetes gramineus gramineus (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)Pooecetes gramineus gramineus (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)1900Roscoe I. Giles
A photograph of the species Tamias striatus, not of this specimenTamias striatus lysteri (Richardson, 1829)1848L AgassizPARSONS ISLAND
A photograph of the species Hygrophorus coccineus, not of this specimenHygrophorus coccineus (Schaeff.) Fr.1856D. Murray; C. J. Sprague[Presumably Massachusetts]
A photograph of the species Clemmys insculpta, not of this specimenClemmys insculpta Fitzinger, 18351864Agassiz
A photograph of the species Ripiphorus fasciatus, not of this specimenRipiphorus fasciatus (Say, 1824)1867not recorded
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 Merulius lacrymans, not of this specimenMerulius lacrymans (Wulfen) Schumach.1879Howes, A.Massachusetts
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 Diploschistes scruposus, not of this specimenDiploschistes scruposus (Schreb.) Norman1880Alex Walther[illegible]

All 689 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 12 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 12 workings within 5 miles of West Sterling: 5 past producers, 4 producers, 2 prospects, 1 occurrence. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Peat, Tungsten, Iron. 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
LeominsterLithium, TinOccurrence1824
Luciani ProspectTungstenProspect
Pandolf QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Sterling Peat CoPeatPast ProducerPeat
Sterling ProspectIron, ZincProspect
Holden Pit & MillSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Holden Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
John D PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Princeton PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Sterling PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

1 since 2023

The National Weather Service names West Sterling 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
June 2023Thunderstorm WindWest Sterling$1,300In Princeton, trees and wires were down on Sterling Road near Town Farm 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
Moores Corners1.2 miles46
East Princeton1.9 miles46
Princeton3.1 miles46
Sterling3.2 miles46
Sterling Junction4.1 miles46
Sterling Camp Grounds4.2 miles46
Pratt Junction4.3 miles43
Oakdale4.3 miles46

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 Q122597640The 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 610579. 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.