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

Dighton, Massachusetts

34 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Dighton town. It lies in ZIP code area 02715. It stands on Muddy Cove Brook. The Survey maps it on the Assonet quadrangle.

Dighton within Bristol County

Then and now

1885 to 1985

The same ground, surveyed 100 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Dighton, surveyed 1985

Topographic sheet of Dighton, surveyed 1885

Topographic sheets covering this place

34 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.

In the county-history sources

35,840 words on this township

History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883 names this settlement in its chapter on Dighton Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

On the other hand, it may be said that, living a simpler and more physically active life, those who survived the perils of infancy had better health than the majority of people have now. They knew but little of nervous disorders or of dyspepsia, which make life a torment to so many people nowadays, and if having plenty of work to do is a chief source of happiness, as Carlyle and other philosophers have taught, they found labor enough to do at hand in clearing the wilderness and finding food and clothing for themselves and their large families. On the wThole, it is to be doubted whether existence is more enjoyable to their descendants than it was to them.

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

The most striking feature of the architecture of one of these old houses is the huge chimney, around which the house was apparently built. The kitchen fireplace was usually an enormous chasm, in which cord-wood was burnt without sawing, and in which one could sit and look up the sooty cavern to the sky. On cold winter evenings the huge high-backed settle was drawn up in front of the fire to keep off draughts. The mug of cider was brought up from the cellar, and perhaps a dish of apples or nuts passed around, or oysters were roasted on the coals. While the fire blazed up brightly there was little need of the tallow candles which flared and sputtered and sent miniature eruptions of melted grease down the candlesticks. Punctually at nine o'clock the family retired to their four-post bedsteads and feather-beds, to be up in the morning at break of day or earlier.

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

The pay for doing the town's business was very moderate, as were the prices for other kinds of work. The town clerk and the selectmen charged at the rate of three shillings a day, and land surveyors had the same pay. Town-meetings were held in the meetinghouse. This saved the expense of a town hall, and was appropriate enough, as much of the town busipess related to church matters. It was the town that built the meeting-house, hired the minister, and collected his rates.

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Dighton Town - it names this place 57 more 57 times.

Fires near this place

43 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 43 fires within 5 miles of Dighton between 2015 and 2020, burning about 37 acres in total. None started naturally. 5 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/undetermined	23
Debris and open burning	10
Arson/incendiarism	5
Recreation and ceremony	3
Misuse of fire by a minor	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
8 September 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
16 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
6 August 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.5 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
1 August 2020	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 July 2017	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
21 July 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
21 July 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
20 July 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Bristol County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 1,220 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,220 specimens collected within 10 miles of Dighton between 1850 and 1975: 877 Animalia, 255 Plantae, 76 Fungi, 9 Chromista, 3 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A E Schuyler, A. C. Birch 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.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Ranunculus bulbosus L.	1850	not recorded
Vitis labrusca L.	1850	not recorded
Apocynum cannabinum L.	1855	F. C. Seymour	Rehoboth
Astur Lacepède, 1799	1860	C. D. Lincoln	Taunton
Carex panicea L.	1863	J. H. Dean
Carex L.	1864	J. H. Dean	Taunton.
Carex vulpinoidea Michx.	1864	J. H. Dean
Chondrus crispus Stackhouse	1874	F. Wolle	Fall River
Conomitrium julianum (Savi ex DC.) Mont.	1874	unknown	Fall River
Ectocarpus littoralis (L.) Lyngb.	1874	F. Wolle	Fall River
Ulva latissima L.	1874	F. Wolle	Fall River
Chelidonium majus L.	1875	not recorded

All 1,220 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Dighton: 4 past producers, 4 producers, 1 unknown. 4 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.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Assonet Sand and Gravel Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
East Freetown Pit & Assonet Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Freetown Development Co. Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
King Trucking Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Lanzisera Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Mc Cabe Sand and Gravel Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Mccabe Sand & Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown
Mccabe Sand and Gravel Company Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Randy Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Bristol County

Storms near this place

10 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Dighton in 10 storm reports between 2002 and 2019: 6 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 1 lightning. 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Dighton	$10,000	Wires on Williams Street were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Dighton	$10,000	Two trees on Elm Street were downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Dighton	$5,000	A tree on Lincoln Avenue was downed by thunderstorm winds, blocking the street.
August 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Dighton	$5,000	Wires on Main Street were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2002	Lightning	Dighton	$5,000	no account filed
July 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	North Dighton	$1,500	At 304 PM EST, a tree was brought down on wires on Prospect Street in Dighton.
August 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Dighton	$500	In Dighton, a tree was down on County Street near the Hillside Church.
July 2017	Hail	Dighton	-	At 305 PM EST, dime size hail was reported in Dighton.
July 2012	Hail	Dighton	-	Quarter to lime size hail fell in Dighton.
July 2012	Hail	Dighton	-	Golfball size hail fell near the Dighton Fire Department.

Every storm recorded in Bristol 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Old Town Landing	0.7 miles	34
Berkley Bridge	1.5 miles	34
Chestnut Tree Corner	1.6 miles	33
Segreganset	1.6 miles	34
Camp Merriwood	1.7 miles	34
Camp Welch	1.8 miles	34
Assonet Bay Shores	2.0 miles	34
Berkley	3.0 miles	34

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 613073. 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.