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

Newtown, Massachusetts

36 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Barnstable Town City. It lies in ZIP code area 02648. The Survey maps it on the Sandwich quadrangle.

Newtown within Barnstable County

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 Newtown, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of Newtown, 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.

Fires nearby

131 since 2007

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 131 fires within 5 miles of Newtown between 2007 and 2020, burning about 86 acres in total. 6 started naturally. 10 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/undetermined60
Debris and open burning36
Arson/incendiarism10
Recreation and ceremony7
Equipment and vehicle use7
Natural6
Smoking4
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
7 September 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control3126
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
6 September 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control3119
6 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control3117
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
5 September 2007Missing 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 Barnstable County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 2,450 shown

Museums hold 2,450 specimens collected within 10 miles of Newtown between 1816 and 1975: 1,433 Animalia, 745 Plantae, 159 Fungi, 97 Chromista, 7 Bacteria, 7 Protozoa, 2 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 lespedezae-procumbentis (Schwein.) Lagerh.Uromyces lespedezae-procumbentis (Schwein.) Lagerh.1900A. B. SeymourHyannis
Specimen of Uromyces lineolatus (Desm.) J.Schröt.Uromyces lineolatus (Desm.) J.Schröt.1900W. G. Farlow
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 Calidris alba, not of this specimenCalidris alba (Pallas, 1764)1866not recordedCape Cod
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 Prionotus carolinus, not of this specimenPrionotus carolinus (Linnaeus, 1771)1871Agassiz, Jean Louis RodolpheWaquoit/Waqouit Bay, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Scomber scombrus, not of this specimenScomber scombrus Linnaeus, 17581871Agassiz, Jean Louis RodolpheWaquoit/Waqouit Bay, Massachusetts

All 2,450 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 Newtown: 5 past producers, 2 producers. 2 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
Lebco EnterprisesSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Lebco PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Marston Mills PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Thew ContractorsSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary

Every working recorded in Barnstable County

Storms nearby

2 since 2017

The National Weather Service names Newtown in 2 storm reports between 2017 and 2019: 1 flood, 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
July 2019Thunderstorm WindNewtown$1,000A tree was down on Asa Meigs Road in Marstons Mills. In West Barnstable, a tree was down on Oak Street.
September 2017FloodNewtown-At 1105 AM EST, Race Lane in West Barnstable was reported flooded and impassable. At 1109 AM the intersection of state routes 6A and 132 in West Barnstable was flooded and nearly impassable. Total storm rainfall in West Barnstable, as reported by the Community Collaborative Rain Hail and Snow Network, was 2.91 inches.

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
Farmersville1.3 miles36
Pondsville1.3 miles36
Marstons Mills1.6 miles34
Wakeby1.9 miles36
Camp Burgess2.0 miles36
Santuit2.4 miles34
Mashpee2.8 miles34
Forestdale3.5 miles36

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 616626. 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.