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

Head of Plains, Massachusetts

32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1889 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Nantucket town. It lies in ZIP code area 02554. It lies in Quampache Bottom. The Survey maps it on the Nantucket quadrangle. The federal gazetteer marks this settlement historical: it is no longer a populated place, though the surveys that recorded it still are.

Head of Plains within Nantucket County

Then and now

1889 to 1994

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 Head of Plains (historical), surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of Head of Plains (historical), surveyed 1889

Topographic sheets covering this place

32 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 1889 county history

17,013 words on this township

The county history of 1889 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for the smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The chapter on Nantucket Town covers the township.

Read the chapter on Nantucket Town - 17,013 words.

Fires nearby

11 since 2004

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 11 fires within 5 miles of Head of Plains (historical) between 2004 and 2020, burning about 3 acres in total. 1 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Recreation and ceremony2
Smoking2
Debris and open burning1
Natural1
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
26 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
25 July 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
10 June 2005Naturalunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
30 May 2006Smokingunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
14 May 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
29 April 2004Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
28 April 2006Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
21 April 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Nantucket County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 3,752 shown

Museums hold 3,752 specimens collected within 10 miles of Head of Plains (historical) between 1825 and 1974: 2,536 Plantae, 671 Animalia, 380 Fungi, 96 Chromista, 62 Unrecorded, 7 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A AND P STARRETT, A. B. Seymour, A. Cohen 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 Anemone quinquefolia L.Anemone quinquefolia L.1900M. A. Day
A photograph of the species Rumex maritimus, not of this specimenRumex maritimus var. fueginus (Phil.) Dusén1825Collector unspecifiedMartha's Vineyard. Block Id.
A photograph of the species Chrysopsis falcata, not of this specimenChrysopsis falcata (Pursh) Elliott1827F. A. Greene
A photograph of the species Platanthera flava, not of this specimenPlatanthera flava (L.) Lindl.1827T. A. GreeneNantucket.
Desmodium rigidum (Elliott) DC.1829Oakes
A photograph of the species Ceramium cimbricum, not of this specimenCeramium cimbricum H.E.Petersen1831not recordedNantucket.
A photograph of the species Gloeosporium polygoni, not of this specimenGloeosporium polygoni Dearn. & House1836Guba E. F.Nantucket Co. Cultivated Fields on Hummock Rd.
Chondria dasyphylla (Woodward) C.Agardh1848M. L. Owen
A photograph of the species Ludwigia palustris, not of this specimenLudwigia palustris (L.) Elliott1849J. L. Russell
A photograph of the species Acer rubrum, not of this specimenAcer rubrum L.1899Nellie F. Flynn
A photograph of the species Aletris farinosa, not of this specimenAletris farinosa L.1899Flynn, N. F.Nantucket
Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.1899Nellie F. Flynn

All 3,752 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

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
Madaket0.9 miles32
Warren Landing1.4 miles32
The Plains (historical)1.4 miles32
Maddequet (historical)1.7 miles32
Cisco1.8 miles32
Fishers Landing1.9 miles32
Trots Hills2.0 miles32
Narrow Creek (historical)2.1 miles30

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 606969. 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.