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

Christian Town, Massachusetts

33 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1994. It stands in West Tisbury town. It lies in ZIP code area 02575. It sits by Cedar Tree Neck. The Survey maps it on the Vineyard Haven quadrangle.

Christian Town within Dukes County

Then and now

1887 to 1994

The same ground, surveyed 107 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Christian Town, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of Christian Town, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

33 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

19 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 19 fires within 5 miles of Christian Town between 2015 and 2020, burning about 13 acres in total. None 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined9
Debris and open burning5
Equipment and vehicle use4
Recreation and ceremony1

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
20 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
9 August 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 July 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
14 June 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
9 May 2015Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control5009542
30 May 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control5011586
24 May 2015Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control5011032
23 May 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control5010922

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Dukes County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 18,112 shown

Museums hold 18,112 specimens collected within 10 miles of Christian Town between 1828 and 1975: 11,389 Animalia, 4,414 Plantae, 1,144 Chromista, 764 Fungi, 192 Unrecorded, 161 Bacteria, 48 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A AND P STARRETT, A B Seymour, A. 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 Tipularia discolor, not of this specimenTipularia discolor (Pursh) Nutt.1828OakesMartha's Vineyard
A photograph of the species Polysiphonia flexicaulis, not of this specimenPolysiphonia flexicaulis (Harvey) F.S.Collins1839unknownWoods Hole
A photograph of the species Ectocarpus littoralis, not of this specimenEctocarpus littoralis (L.) Lyngb.1841B. F. D. RunkWoods Hole, Nobska Point, wash
A photograph of the species Polysiphonia fibrata, not of this specimenPolysiphonia fibrata (Dillwyn) Harvey1844Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Alosa aestivalis, not of this specimenAlosa aestivalis (Mitchill, 1814)1852not recordedWood's Hole, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Clupea harengus, not of this specimenClupea harengus Linnaeus, 17581852not recordedWood's Hole, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Menidia menidia, not of this specimenMenidia menidia (Linnaeus, 1766)1852not recordedWood's Hole, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Prionotus evolans, not of this specimenPrionotus evolans (Linnaeus, 1766)1852not recordedWood's Hole, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Ulva clathrata, not of this specimenUlva clathrata (Roth) C.Agardh1852G. W. Perry
A photograph of the species Acanthurus bahianus, not of this specimenAcanthurus bahianus Castelnau, 18551899not recordedWoods Hole, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Alosa pseudoharengus, not of this specimenAlosa pseudoharengus (Wilson, 1811)1899not recordedMassachusetts, Katama Bay near Edgartown
A photograph of the species Balistes capriscus, not of this specimenBalistes capriscus Gmelin, 17891899V. EdwardsWoods Hole, Massachusetts

All 18,112 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 Christian Town: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. 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
Dump Road PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Dukes 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
Lamberts Cove1.4 miles33
North Tisbury1.5 miles33
Longview1.9 miles33
Makonikey2.9 miles33
West Tisbury3.1 miles33
Nabs Corner3.7 miles34
Oklahoma Heights4.3 miles33
Vineyard Haven4.8 miles33

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 Q122591804The 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 1974819. 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.