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

Forestdale, Massachusetts

36 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Sandwich town. It lies in ZIP code area 02644. It stands on Jefferson Island. The Survey maps it on the Sandwich quadrangle. 4,116 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 164 feet above sea level.

Forestdale within Barnstable County

Population over time

2 figures

Forestdale grew from 4,099 to 4,116 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. 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
20104,099
20204,116+17 (+0%)

Then and now

1888 to 1994

The same ground, surveyed 106 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Forestdale, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of Forestdale, surveyed 1888

Topographic sheets covering this place

36 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 1890 county history

36 words on this township

The county history of 1890 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for the smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The chapter on Sandwich Town covers the township.

Read the chapter on Sandwich Town - 36 words.

Fires nearby

100 since 2001

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 100 fires within 5 miles of Forestdale between 2001 and 2020, burning about 188 acres in total. 5 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/undetermined50
Debris and open burning21
Equipment and vehicle use11
Arson/incendiarism5
Natural5
Smoking4
Recreation and ceremony3
Other causes1

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
6 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control3115
6 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control3109
5 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control2746
5 September 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control2742
3 September 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control2724
2 September 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 September 2015Debris and open burning2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control2708

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Barnstable County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 2,780 shown

Museums hold 2,780 specimens collected within 10 miles of Forestdale between 1791 and 1975: 1,478 Animalia, 955 Plantae, 204 Fungi, 118 Chromista, 14 Bacteria, 7 Protozoa, 4 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. R. Hodgdon, A. R. Hodgdon; E. J. Hehre 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
Specimen of Aecidium Pers.Aecidium Pers.1900Seymour, Arthur Blissnear Shoot-flying Hill [sic; Shootflying Hill], Hyannis, Mass. [Massachusetts]
Specimen of Uromyces lineolatus (Desm.) J.Schröt.Uromyces lineolatus (Desm.) J.Schröt.1900W. G. Farlow
A photograph of the species Drosera filiformis, not of this specimenDrosera filiformis var. filiformis1791not recorded
A photograph of the species Cistus L., not of this specimenCistus L.1816Boott, F.M.Sandwich, Massts. [=Sandwich, Massachusetts].
Lythraceae1816Boott, J.W.Sandwich, Mass'ts. | [On reverse of sheet:] From Sandwich, Mass'ts U.S.A. [=From Sandwich, Massachusetts, U.S.A.]
A photograph of the species Malva neglecta, not of this specimenMalva neglecta Wallr.1816Boott, J.W.Sandwich. Mass.tts.
A photograph of the species Brevoortia tyrannus, not of this specimenBrevoortia tyrannus (Latrobe, 1802)1860Harvard MuseumWaquoit
A photograph of the species Prionotus palmipes, not of this specimenPrionotus palmipes (Mitchill, 1815)1860Harvard MuseumWaguoit
A photograph of the species Esox niger, not of this specimenEsox niger Lesueur, 18181871Agassiz, Jean Louis RodolpheWaquoit/Waqouit Bay, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Nereis megalops, not of this specimenNereis megalops (Verrill, 1873)1871Verrill, A. E.Falmouth. Waquoit Pond
A photograph of the species Nereis pelagica, not of this specimenNereis pelagica Linnaeus, 17581871Verrill, A. E.Falmouth. Waquoit Pond
A photograph of the species Nereis succinea, not of this specimenNereis succinea Leuckart, 18471871Verrill, A. E.Falmouth. Waquoit Pond

All 2,780 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

4 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Forestdale: 3 producers, 1 past producer. 3 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.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Byrne Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Campanella CorpSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Forestdale Pit & Plant TilconSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Gil-Pam Construction PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Barnstable County

Storms nearby

2 since 2016

The National Weather Service names Forestdale in 2 storm reports between 2016 and 2017: 1 lightning, 1 flash flood. The reports record 1 injury. 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 2016LightningForestdale1 hurtTwo houses on Greenville Drive were struck by lightning, within minutes of each other. One resulted in a fire in a bedroom and attic over the garage. The other had electrical issues but no fire, and the owner's son felt unwell after the strike and was transported to the hospital as a precaution.
July 2017Flash FloodForestdale-Between 1:25 and 2:30 PM EST, Hillside Road and West Crossfield Street in Sandwich were reported flooded and impassible. A mudslide from a construction are flowed onto Acadamy Road in Sandwich. A car was stuck in flood waters on Spinnaker Street. Cotuit Road and Pimlico Pnd Road were flooded and impassable.

Every storm recorded in Barnstable 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
Wakeby1.6 miles36
Camp Burgess2.4 miles36
Farmersville3.0 miles36
Mashpee3.1 miles34
Camp Edwards3.4 miles40
Newtown3.5 miles36
The Springs4.0 miles36
Pondsville4.2 miles36

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 ForestdaleAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q972501The 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 616600. 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.