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

Halifax Beach, Massachusetts

37 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Halifax town. It lies in ZIP code area 02338. It stands on Howard Island. The Survey maps it on the Hanover quadrangle.

Halifax Beach within Plymouth County

Then and now

1885 to 1984

The same ground, surveyed 99 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Halifax Beach, surveyed 1984
Topographic sheet of Halifax Beach, surveyed 1885

Topographic sheets covering this place

37 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

114 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 114 fires within 5 miles of Halifax Beach between 2015 and 2020, burning about 31 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
Debris and open burning52
Missing data/not specified/undetermined44
Misuse of fire by a minor11
Recreation and ceremony4
Smoking2
Arson/incendiarism1

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
9 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlHANSON
8 September 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlHANSON
5 September 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlPLYMPTON
3 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlEAST BRIDGEWATER
19 September 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
15 September 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
12 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlHANSON
11 September 2016Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlHALIFAX

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Plymouth County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,314 shown

Museums hold 1,314 specimens collected within 10 miles of Halifax Beach between 1838 and 1975: 566 Plantae, 432 Animalia, 296 Fungi, 15 Protozoa, 3 Unrecorded, 2 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by -- Russell, A., 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 Taphrina Fr., 1815Taphrina Fr., 18151900Seymour, Arthur BlissPlymouth Woods, Mass. [Massachusetts]
Specimen of Trientalis borealis Raf.Trientalis borealis Raf.1900not recorded
A photograph of the species Myriophyllum humile, not of this specimenMyriophyllum humile (Raf.) Morong1838W Oakes
A photograph of the species Utricularia cornuta, not of this specimenUtricularia cornuta Michx.1840NonePlymouth
Carex stellata Mack.1842Collector unspecified[Half May Pond], Plymouth.
A photograph of the species Pseudevernia consocians, not of this specimenPseudevernia consocians (Vainio) Hale & W.L.Culb.1849-- RussellKingston
A photograph of the species Condylura cristata, not of this specimenCondylura cristata (Linnaeus, 1758)1855Preparator(s): Edwin V. KomarekMiddleboro
A photograph of the species Coreopsis rosea, not of this specimenCoreopsis rosea Nutt.1855J. Blake
A photograph of the species Ionactis linariifolia, not of this specimenIonactis linariifolia (L.) Greene1855not recorded
A photograph of the species Juncus pelocarpus, not of this specimenJuncus pelocarpus E.Mey.1855J. BlakePlymouth.
A photograph of the species Microtus pennsylvanicus, not of this specimenMicrotus pennsylvanicus pennsylvanicus (Ord, 1815)1855John W. JenksMiddleboro
A photograph of the species Arethusa bulbosa, not of this specimenArethusa bulbosa L.1899J. Murdoch, Jr.Middleborough

All 1,314 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

7 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Halifax Beach: 4 past producers, 3 producers. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay. 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
K F Brick CoClayPast ProducerSedimentary
K-F No 2 Pit & PlantClayProducer
Bridgewater Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Halifax PitsSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Hill Pit & PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
John Hill IncSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
T L Edwards PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary

Every working recorded in Plymouth County

Storms nearby

1 since 2024

The National Weather Service names Halifax Beach in 1 storm report between 2024 and 2024: 1 thunderstorm wind. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2024Thunderstorm WindHalifax Beach$800In Halifax, several trees were downed on Rt. 58.

Every storm recorded in Plymouth 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
Camp Ousamequin0.5 miles37
Halifax0.8 miles37
Monponsett1.3 miles37
Burrage2.0 miles37
Breezy Hill2.2 miles37
North Plympton2.5 miles37
Harrubs Corner2.8 miles37
Mayflower Grove2.9 miles37

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 Q122539754The 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 613931. 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.