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

Fort Dawes, Massachusetts

41 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1892 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Boston City. It stands on Deer Island Flats. The Survey maps it on the Hull quadrangle.

Fort Dawes within Suffolk County

Then and now

1892 to 1997

The same ground, surveyed 105 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Fort Dawes, surveyed 1997
Topographic sheet of Fort Dawes, surveyed 1892

Topographic sheets covering this place

41 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.

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Boston city, in the words of 1894.

1894, Boston City

City Charter

IN giving some notices of manners and social life during this period, I shall speak first of usages which were characteristic of the close of the last century: most of them continued without essential modification until our city charter swept away the old landmarks, and Boston felt the im¬ pulses which mark a new epoch in her history.

Read the rest of this passage

Fires nearby

7 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Fort Dawes between 2015 and 2018, burning about 2 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
Debris and open burning4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3

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
3 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
7 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlQUINCY
23 July 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBELLINGHAM
24 June 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
7 April 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlREVERE
7 April 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlREVERE
13 April 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlHULL

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Suffolk County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 14,748 shown

Museums hold 14,748 specimens collected within 10 miles of Fort Dawes between 1810 and 1975: 7,654 Plantae, 2,796 Animalia, 2,664 Fungi, 1,221 Chromista, 173 Bacteria, 127 Protozoa, 113 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by (MARSDEN, H W), ?, 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
Specimen of Lysimachia × producta (A.Gray) FernaldLysimachia × producta (A.Gray) Fernald1900A. P. Chute
A photograph of the species Thalictrum L., not of this specimenThalictrum L.1810Boott, J.W.Near Boston.
A photograph of the species Anemone L., not of this specimenAnemone L.1815Boott, J.Andover Turnpike, 7 miles from Boston.
A photograph of the species Chenopodium album, not of this specimenChenopodium album L.1815not recordedGathered at Bunker (properly Breed's) Hill.
A photograph of the species Corylus L., not of this specimenCorylus L.1815not recordedCambridge Port, 2 miles from Boston.
Ericaceae1815BoottBoston, U.S.A.
A photograph of the species Hepatica Mill., not of this specimenHepatica Mill.1815Boott, F.M.B.Sweet Auburn.
Acanthis flammea flammea (Linnaeus, 1758)1900Collector(s): James Lee PetersQuincy
Acer carpinifolium Siebold & Zucc.1900A. K. HarrisonHarvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
Acer palmatum var. dissectum (Thunb.) Miq.1900A. K. HarrisonHarvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
Agaricus flavescens (Gillet) Sacc.1900G. E. Morris
Agarum turneri Postels & Ruprecht1900J. MurdochRevere

All 14,748 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 Fort Dawes: 1 plant. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Copper, Lead. 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
(Facility) Vulcan Smelter--Chelsea, Ma.Copper, LeadPlant

Every working recorded in Suffolk 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
Point Shirley1.0 miles41
Cottage Hill1.4 miles41
Winthrop Beach2.1 miles43
Cottage Park2.2 miles41
Winthrop2.2 miles43
Court Park2.6 miles41
Fort Warren2.6 miles41
Winthrop Highlands2.7 miles43

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 617124. 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.