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Great River, New York

30 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1902 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Islip town. It lies in ZIP code area 11739. It lies near Nicoll Island. The Survey maps it on the Bay Shore East quadrangle. 2,005 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 13 feet above sea level.

Great River within Suffolk County

Then and now

1902 to 1984

The same ground, surveyed 82 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Great River, surveyed 1984
Topographic sheet of Great River, surveyed 1902

On record in Great River

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 2 records

Population over time

2 figures

Great River grew from 1,489 to 2,005 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
20101,489
20202,005+516 (+35%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

14 surveys from 30 printed 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 near this place

620 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 620 fires within 5 miles of Great River between 1992 and 2020, burning about 547 acres in total. 34 started naturally. 114 were 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined411
Arson/incendiarism114
Natural34
Equipment and vehicle use18
Misuse of fire by a minor12
Smoking11
Debris and open burning10
Recreation and ceremony9
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 2018Arson/incendiarism3.1 acresFire Department of New YorkN/A
9 September 2010Arson/incendiarismunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
8 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWertheim National Wildlife RefugeNYWHR-FY20-WF-SAYVILLE 6
8 September 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
7 September 2005Arson/incendiarismunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
7 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
6 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWertheim National Wildlife RefugeNYWHR-FY20-WF-SAYVILLE 5
6 September 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Suffolk County

Mines and quarries near this place

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Great River: 3 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Clay, 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
Bay Shore PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Nassau Clay MineClayPast ProducerSedimentary
Nassau Clay MineClayPast Producer

Every working recorded in Suffolk County

Storms near this place

4 since 2012

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Great River in 4 storm reports between 2012 and 2019: 1 tornado, 1 hail, 1 flash flood, 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
August 2012Tornado (EF0)Great River$100,000The National Weather Service conducted a storm survey in south central Suffolk County, New York. Based on this survey, the tornado touched down on Widgeon Court in Great River, and tracked north-northeast to where it lifted near the intersection of Ocean Avenue and Gary Way Road in Ronkonkoma.||The track went through Oakdale, Connequot River State Park, Bohemia County Park, and Bohemia in between touch down and lifting. The most significant damage occurred between 8th Street and Feuereisen Avenue in Bohemia around 2:11 PM EDT. Multiple trees were uprooted and thrown onto power lines. Several homes were damaged due to fallen trees in Oakdale and Bohemia. There were several eyewitness reports of the tornado moving north-northeast near the east bank of the Connequot River and in Bohemia as well.
June 2019Thunderstorm WindNorth Great River$1,000A tree down blocking Craig Road near Connectquot Avenue.
August 2014Flash FloodNorth Great River-An estimated two feet of standing water accumulated on Lagoon Place in East Islip while water was up to the mailboxes on Argosy St. in Islip Terrace.
July 2012HailNorth Great River-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Suffolk 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
Deer Run1.6 miles30
East Islip1.7 miles30
Oakdale1.9 miles30
North Great River1.9 miles30
The Moorings2.3 miles30
Islip Terrace2.4 miles30
Islip2.9 miles30
West Sayville3.2 miles29

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.

Wikipedia article on Great RiverAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3460817The 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 951648. 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.

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.