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

Whipples, Massachusetts

35 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Palmer Town City. It lies in ZIP code area 01069. It stands on Kings Mountain. The Survey maps it on the Palmer quadrangle.

Whipples within Hampden County

Then and now

1887 to 1985

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.

Topographic sheet of Whipples, surveyed 1985
Topographic sheet of Whipples, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

35 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

76 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 76 fires within 5 miles of Whipples between 2015 and 2020, burning about 65 acres in total. 5 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
Equipment and vehicle use41
Missing data/not specified/undetermined13
Recreation and ceremony9
Natural5
Debris and open burning5
Smoking1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Railroad operations and maintenance1

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
9 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
12 September 2016Naturalunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
9 August 2020Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 August 2015Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 August 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 August 2020Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hampden County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 948 shown

Museums hold 948 specimens collected within 10 miles of Whipples between 1857 and 1975: 460 Fungi, 295 Plantae, 187 Animalia, 5 Unrecorded, 1 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Gibson, A. E. Kirk 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 Polygonum pensylvanicum L.Polygonum pensylvanicum L.1897Morris,E.L. s.n. [1897-08][label: Flora of North America - Herbarium of E.L. Morris] Monson. Massachussets. Rubbish heaps
A photograph of the species Krigia virginica, not of this specimenKrigia virginica (L.) Willd.1857not recorded
A photograph of the species Carex cephalophora, not of this specimenCarex cephalophora Muhl. ex Willd.1858J. Blake
A photograph of the species Carex vestita, not of this specimenCarex vestita Willd.1858J. BlakeWare
A photograph of the species Castilleja coccinea, not of this specimenCastilleja coccinea (L.) Spreng.1858A. P. Chute
A photograph of the species Celastrus scandens, not of this specimenCelastrus scandens L.1858s.coll.
A photograph of the species Ranunculus flabellaris, not of this specimenRanunculus flabellaris Raf.1858A. P. Chute
Trifolium agrarium L.1858not recorded
A photograph of the species Zizia aurea, not of this specimenZizia aurea (L.) W.D.J.Koch1859A. P. Chute
A photograph of the species Carex tribuloides, not of this specimenCarex tribuloides Wahlenb.1870H. G. JesupBelchertown
Acer spicatum Lam.1891not recorded
Chimaphila umbellata (L.) W.P.C.Barton1891not recordedBelchertown

All 948 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 Whipples: 5 producers, 3 past producers. 5 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.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
B and C Gravel CompanySand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
J J Raczka Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
J.J. Raczka Sand and Gravel Co. PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Lizak's PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Palmer Bituminous CorpSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Palmer PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Palmer Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Tobias PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Hampden County

Storms nearby

2 since 2020

The National Weather Service names Whipples in 2 storm reports between 2020 and 2025: 2 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
May 2025Thunderstorm WindWhipples$2,000In Palmer, trees and wires were down on a car and shed.
August 2020Thunderstorm WindWhipples$500In Palmer, a tree was down on State Rd.

Every storm recorded in Hampden 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
Thorndike1.4 miles35
Palmer Center1.5 miles35
Bondsville1.6 miles35
Duckville1.7 miles35
Four Corners2.0 miles35
Meadowbrook Green2.1 miles35
Three Rivers2.8 miles35
Palmer Green Estates2.9 miles35

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 Q122560920The 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 609624. 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.