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

East Norton, Massachusetts

33 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1987. It stands in Norton town. It lies in ZIP code area 02766. It stands on Wading River. The Survey maps it on the Norton quadrangle.

East Norton within Bristol County

Then and now

1885 to 1987

The same ground, surveyed 102 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of East Norton, surveyed 1987

Topographic sheet of East Norton, surveyed 1885

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.

In the county-history sources

31,415 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 Norton Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

John Wetherell, Jr., the son of John, already mentioned, was born Oct. 8, 1688, and is said to have been the first child born within the limits of Norton. He lived at the east part of the town, upon the old homestead.

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 Norton Town - it names this place 1 more 1 time.

Fires near this place

35 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 35 fires within 5 miles of East Norton between 2015 and 2020, burning about 40 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	16
Debris and open burning	8
Recreation and ceremony	5
Fireworks	2
Smoking	1
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Arson/incendiarism	1

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	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
16 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
12 September 2017	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	PLAINVILLE
28 August 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
10 August 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
10 August 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
20 July 2016	Fireworks	1.2 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 June 2017	Smoking	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 1,298 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,298 specimens collected within 10 miles of East Norton between 1860 and 1974: 907 Animalia, 314 Plantae, 74 Fungi, 3 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A. A. Eaton, 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
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
Hypoxis hirsuta (L.) Coville	1874	not recorded
Chelidonium majus L.	1875	not recorded
Lygodium palmatum (Bernh.) Sw.	1875	not recorded
Berberis vulgaris L.	1876	not recorded
Empidonax minimus (W.M.Baird & S.F.Baird, 1843)	1877	C.P. Snow	Taunton, North
Chaetura pelagica (Linnaeus, 1758)	1878	C. F. Snow	MASSACHUSETTS: Bristol County; Taunton
Coccyzus erythropthalmus (A.Wilson, 1811)	1878	not recorded	Taunton
Dryobates pubescens (Linnaeus, 1766)	1878	C. F. Snow	MASSACHUSETTS: Bristol County; Taunton

All 1,298 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

5 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of East Norton: 4 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, 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.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Taunton Plant	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Allen R. Nelson Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Gary Nelson Excavating Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Pine Street Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working 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
Centre Mills	0.8 miles	33
Norton	1.1 miles	33
Norton Grove	1.8 miles	33
Copper Works	1.9 miles	33
Cranes Station	2.0 miles	33
Winnecunnet	2.1 miles	33
Norton Furnace (historical)	2.6 miles	33
Meadow Brook	2.6 miles	33

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 Q122570227

The 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 612446. 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.