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

Willows, Massachusetts

41 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Ayer town. It lies in ZIP code area 01432. It stands on Longs Hill. The Survey maps it on the Ayer quadrangle.

Willows within Middlesex County

Then and now

1893 to 1988

The same ground, surveyed 95 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Willows, surveyed 1988
Topographic sheet of Willows, surveyed 1893

Topographic sheets covering this place

41 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

56 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 56 fires within 5 miles of Willows between 2015 and 2020, burning about 38 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 burning25
Missing data/not specified/undetermined18
Smoking4
Equipment and vehicle use3
Recreation and ceremony3
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Arson/incendiarism1

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
6 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
26 September 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
20 September 2015Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
1 September 2017Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
30 August 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 August 2017Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 July 2015Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
26 June 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 495 shown

Museums hold 495 specimens collected within 10 miles of Willows between 1898 and 1975: 305 Animalia, 90 Plantae, 62 Protozoa, 33 Fungi, 4 Unrecorded, 1 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Gibson, A. F. Newton 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
A photograph of the species Viola brittoniana, not of this specimenViola brittoniana Pollard1898Henry A. Purdie
A photograph of the species Chrysosplenium americanum, not of this specimenChrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook.1899E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Oryzopsis asperifolia, not of this specimenOryzopsis asperifolia Michx.1899J M Greenman
A photograph of the species Cenchrus spinifex, not of this specimenCenchrus spinifex Cav.1900C. H. KnowltonN Chelmsford.
A photograph of the species Dicranum scoparium, not of this specimenDicranum scoparium Hedw.1900A. B. Seymour
A photograph of the species Pholiota carbonaria, not of this specimenPholiota carbonaria (Fr.) Singer1900H. WebsterGroton.
A photograph of the species Alopecurus aequalis, not of this specimenAlopecurus aequalis Sobol.1930M. L. Fernald; C. A. Weatherby
A photograph of the species Carex nigra, not of this specimenCarex nigra (L.) Reichard1930R J Eaton
A photograph of the species Cistothorus stellaris, not of this specimenCistothorus stellaris (J.F.Naumann, 1823)1930Collector(s): James Lee PetersHarvard
A photograph of the species Colaptes auratus, not of this specimenColaptes auratus luteus Bangs, 18981930Collector(s): James Lee PetersHarvard
A photograph of the species Epitheca cynosura, not of this specimenEpitheca cynosura (Say, 1840)1930Davis, E. M.MA, Middlesex Co., Shirley
A photograph of the species Hemaris thysbe, not of this specimenHemaris thysbe Fabricius, 17751930not recordedLunenburg

All 495 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 Willows: 5 past producers, 1 occurrence, 1 producer, 1 plant. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Kyanite, Graphite. 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
Fiber Matls Plant--Graniteville, MaGraphitePlant
Oak Hill Andalusite OccurrenceKyaniteOccurrenceMetamorphic
Black PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Joy Contracting TcSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
San Vel Contracting CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
San Vel Pit & PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Shirley PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Willow PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms nearby

1 since 2014

The National Weather Service names Willows in 1 storm report between 2014 and 2014: 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 2014Thunderstorm WindWillows$50,000Trees and wires were downed in Chelmsford on Donna Road, Park Road, and Proctor Road. Three trees were blown down on a house on Judith Road. In Westford, wires were downed on Beaver Brook Road and multiple trees were downed on Proctor Road. In Littleton, trees and wires were downed on Route 119. In Lowell, a tree was downed next to Rogers Street and Fort Hill Park.

Every storm recorded in Middlesex 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
Pingryville0.5 miles41
Devenscrest1.5 miles41
Littleton2.0 miles41
Ayer2.7 miles41
Forge Village3.2 miles43
Centre Village (historical)3.3 miles43
Littleton Common3.6 miles43
Groton4.1 miles41

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 617863. 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.