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

Black Rock, Massachusetts

38 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Cohasset town. It lies in ZIP code area 02025. It stands on Scituate Hill. The Survey maps it on the Cohasset quadrangle.

Black Rock within Norfolk County

Then and now

1885 to 1984

The same ground, surveyed 99 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Black Rock, surveyed 1984
Topographic sheet of Black Rock, surveyed 1885

Topographic sheets covering this place

38 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

137 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 137 fires within 5 miles of Black Rock between 2015 and 2020, burning about 42 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 2 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
Debris and open burning84
Missing data/not specified/undetermined27
Misuse of fire by a minor11
Recreation and ceremony4
Smoking4
Arson/incendiarism2
Natural2
Fireworks2
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
4 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSCITUATE
4 September 2016Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlHINGHAM
3 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlHINGHAM
27 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlHINGHAM
26 September 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSCITUATE
2 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlHINGHAM
18 September 2016Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlHINGHAM
17 September 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Norfolk County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 3,165 shown

Museums hold 3,165 specimens collected within 10 miles of Black Rock between 1836 and 1975: 2,056 Plantae, 391 Animalia, 355 Chromista, 292 Fungi, 52 Unrecorded, 13 Protozoa, 6 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by (MARSDEN, H W), A Loveridge, A. B. Seymour 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 Carex trisperma, not of this specimenCarex trisperma Dewey1836J. W. Robbins
A photograph of the species Salicornia bigelovii, not of this specimenSalicornia bigelovii Torr.1840Welle, J.Hull
A photograph of the species Salsola kali, not of this specimenSalsola kali L.1840Welle, J.Hull
A photograph of the species Cladonia rangiferina, not of this specimenCladonia rangiferina (L.) Weber1844J. L. RussellHingham
A photograph of the species Lopadium disciforme, not of this specimenLopadium disciforme (Flot.) Kullh.1848J. L. Russell
A photograph of the species Cladonia gracilis, not of this specimenCladonia gracilis (L.) Willd.1849J. L. RussellHingham
A photograph of the species Spyridia filamentosa, not of this specimenSpyridia filamentosa (Wulfen) Harv.1849see Collection Note
A photograph of the species Frullania asagrayana, not of this specimenFrullania asagrayana Mont.1850J. L. Russell
A photograph of the species Hypnum curvifolium, not of this specimenHypnum curvifolium Hedw.1851W. L. RussellHingham
A photograph of the species Lobaria pulmonaria, not of this specimenLobaria pulmonaria (L.) Hoffm.1851J. L. Russell
A photograph of the species Ameiurus nebulosus, not of this specimenAmeiurus nebulosus (Lesueur, 1819)1852S. BairdHingham Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Buellia alboatra, not of this specimenBuellia alboatra (Hoffm.) Th.Fr.1852Edward Tuckerman

All 3,165 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

1 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Black Rock: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Hingham PlantStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Norfolk County

Storms nearby

3 since 2017

The National Weather Service names Black Rock in 3 storm reports between 2017 and 2024: 2 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
July 2024Thunderstorm WindBlack Rock$2,000In Cohasset, a tree was down on wires on North Main St. On Hull St there was a tree down. A tree was down on Black Rock Rd.
July 2021FloodBlack Rock-In Cohasset, a back yard was flooded, with waters approaching the garage, at 373 North Main Street.
August 2017FloodBlack Rock-At 346 PM EST, Cushing Highway in Cohassett was flooded with water pouring out of manhole covers.

Every storm recorded in Norfolk 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
North Cohasset1.3 miles39
Cohasset1.3 miles38
Reeds Corner1.9 miles38
Beechwood2.4 miles38
Lincoln Heights5.0 miles38
East Weymouth5.3 miles38
Weymouth6.1 miles38
Old Spain6.1 miles38

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 613793. 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.