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

Head of Westport, Massachusetts

37 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Westport town. It lies in ZIP code area 02790. It stands on Bread and Cheese Brook. The Survey maps it on the Head of Westport quadrangle. 16,339 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 49 feet above sea level.

Head of Westport within Bristol County

Population over time

2 figures

Head of Westport grew from 15,532 to 16,339 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.

Year	People	Change
2010	15,532
2020	16,339	+807 (+5%)

Then and now

1888 to 1985

The same ground, surveyed 97 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 Westport, surveyed 1985

Topographic sheet of Head of Westport, surveyed 1888

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.

In the county-history sources

119,038 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 Westport Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Nineteen years later the militia of ancient Dartmouth had been increased to nine companies, and that part of these forces in what subsequently became Westport appeared under these officers, viz. : Robert Earl, captain ; Sylvester Brownell, lieutenant; and John Hix, ensign.

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

Barber, in his " Historical Collections," published in 1848, in speaking of Westport, says, "This town, previous to its incorporation in 1787, was a part of Dartmouth. There are two small villages in the town, one at the head of East River, the other at Westport Point. The people are much divided in religious sentiments. There are five meeting-houses : two for Friends, two for Baptists, and one for Methodists. There is also a small society of Congregational ists. The village at the head of East or Nochacuck River is about eight* miles from New Bedford, eight from Franklin, and twenty-one from Newport. Formerly considerable quantities of timber were obtained in this town. The whale fishery is now an important branch of business ; eight whaling vessels now go out from Westport Point. There is a cottonmill in this town having 3072 spindles, which in 1837 consumed 300,000 pounds of cotton ; 270,000 pounds of cotton yarn were manufactured, the value of which was $67,500."

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

Westport Point is situated at the southerly part of the town, between the east and west branches of Westport River. It contains about one hundred and fifty inhabitants, many of whom are engaged in fishing. Whaling vessels were formerly fitted from this port, but there is no large shipping there at this time.

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

Fires near this place

39 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 39 fires within 5 miles of Head of Westport between 2001 and 2020, burning about 32 acres in total. None 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/undetermined	17
Debris and open burning	10
Arson/incendiarism	5
Recreation and ceremony	3
Fireworks	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	2

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
15 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
9 August 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
8 August 2002	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
3 August 2020	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 August 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
22 August 2020	Fireworks	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 July 2018	Fireworks	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
21 June 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	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 2,049 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 2,049 specimens collected within 10 miles of Head of Westport between 1824 and 1975: 976 Animalia, 586 Fungi, 427 Plantae, 53 Chromista, 4 Unrecorded, 3 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Gridley, A. B. Hervey, A. Clark 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
Gamochaeta purpurea (L.) Cabrera	1824	T. A. Greene
Lythrum salicaria L.	1831	T. A. Greene
Mentha aquatica L.	1831	Collector unknown	New Bedford. [Inferred county from precise loc.]
Trypethelium virens Tuck.	1848	ex herb. Oakes	New Bedford.
Ranunculus bulbosus L.	1850	not recorded
Vitis labrusca L.	1850	not recorded
Endocarpon pusillum Hedw.	1858	H. Willey	Fort Phoenix. Fairhaven.
Carex spicata Huds.	1859	Collector unspecified	Portsmouth.
Menegazzia terebrata (Hoffm.) A.Massal.	1860	H. Willey	New Bedford
Pandion haliaetus (Linnaeus, 1758)	1860	Alan Poole	Westport, Westport River, Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary
Scolopax minor J.F.Gmelin, 1789	1860	Alan Poole	Westport
Abrothallus parmeliarum (Sommerf.) Nyl., 1869	1862	Willey H.	Weymouth, New Bedford

All 2,049 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Head of Westport: 7 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone. 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
Clearwater Stone Inc	Stone	Past Producer
Boan Farm Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Clearwater Pit and Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Dartmouth Town Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Louis Fernandez Sand and Gravel	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Medeiros Washed Sand & Stone Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Pine Hill Sand and Gravel	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Westport Division	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Bristol County

Storms near this place

1 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Head of Westport in 1 storm report between 2018 and 2018: 1 flood. 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
November 2018	Flood	Head Of Westport	-	In Dartmouth, there was 1 foot of street flooding on portions of Old Westport and Beeden Roads.

Every storm 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
Sissons Corner	0.5 miles	37
Giffords Corner	1.0 miles	37
Westport Factory	1.4 miles	31
Suburban Park	1.6 miles	31
Camp Noquochoke	1.7 miles	37
Kirby Corner	1.8 miles	37
Berryman Corner	2.0 miles	31
Brownell Corner	2.2 miles	31

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 Head of Westport	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q432359	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 613221. 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.