West Ware, Massachusetts

The same ground, surveyed 98 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1887 1985

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.

• 1887 USGS Belchertown quadrangle1:62500
• 1890 USGS Belchertown quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Belchertown quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Belchertown quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Belchertown quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Belchertown quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Belchertown quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Belchertown quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Belchertown quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Belchertown quadrangle1:62500
• 1908 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000
• 1908 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000
• 1942 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000
• 1944 USGS Winsor Dam quadrangle1:31680
• 1944 USGS Winsor Dam quadrangle1:31680
• 1944 USGS Winsor Dam quadrangle1:31680
• 1948 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1952 USGS Winsor Dam quadrangle1:31680
• 1952 USGS Winsor Dam quadrangle1:31680
• 1952 USGS Winsor Dam quadrangle1:24000
• 1952 USGS Winsor Dam quadrangle1:24000
• 1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1957 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1959 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1962 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1967 USGS Winsor Dam quadrangle1:24000
• 1967 USGS Winsor Dam quadrangle1:24000
• 1967 USGS Winsor Dam quadrangle1:25000
• 1975 USGS Winsor Dam quadrangle1:25000
• 1985 USGS Holyoke quadrangle1:100000
• 1985 USGS Holyoke quadrangle1:100000

The county history of 1898 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for the smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 53 fires within 5 miles of West Ware between 2015 and 2020, burning about 58 acres in total. 7 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.

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Gibbs Crossing
• Ware Center
• Cold Spring
• Bardwell
• South Quabbin Villa
• Ware

Every fire recorded in Hampshire County

Museums hold 869 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Ware between 1857 and 1975: 466 Animalia, 221 Plantae, 178 Fungi, 3 Protozoa, 1 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. Gibson, A. Clark, A. K. Harrison 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	Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
	Krigia virginica (L.) Willd.	1857	not recorded
	Carex cephalophora Muhl. ex Willd.	1858	J. Blake
	Carex vestita Willd.	1858	J. Blake	Ware
	Castilleja coccinea (L.) Spreng.	1858	A. P. Chute
	Celastrus scandens L.	1858	s.coll.
	Ranunculus flabellaris Raf.	1858	A. P. Chute
	Trifolium agrarium L.	1858	not recorded
	Zizia aurea (L.) W.D.J.Koch	1859	A. P. Chute
	Aralia nudicaulis L.	1861	Hopkins, L.S.	Pelham Springs
	Collema microptychium Tuck.	1861	E. Tuckerman	Amherst, Parttrigg's Swamp
	Cypripedium acaule Aiton	1861	Anonymous	Pelham Springs
	Prunus serotina Ehrh.	1861	Hopkins, L.S.	Pelham Springs

All 869 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of West Ware: 4 past producers, 1 producer, 1 plant. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Every working recorded in Hampshire County

The National Weather Service names West Ware in 3 storm reports between 2011 and 2025: 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 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.

Every storm recorded in Hampshire County

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

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.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 609623. 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.