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

North Swansea, Massachusetts

37 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1987. It stands in Swansea town. It lies in ZIP code area 02777. It stands on Margarets Rock. The Survey maps it on the East Providence quadrangle.

North Swansea within Bristol County

Then and now

1887 to 1987

The same ground, surveyed 100 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of North Swansea, surveyed 1987
Topographic sheet of North Swansea, surveyed 1887

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

42,670 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 Swansea Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

" At a Town-meeting Lawfully warned on ye 11th of May, 1671, Mr. James Brown was chosen Deputy, and Hugh Colegrandjuryman, and John Martin Constable. Nathaniel Peck, Joseph Carpenter, and Zechariah Eddy were chosen waywardens. Mr. James Brown, Hugh Cole, and Samuel Luther were chosen selectmen."

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

" It is ordered that all lotts & divisions of land that are or shall be granted to any particular person shall be proportioned to the threefold rank underwritten, so that where those of the first rank have three acres, those of the second rank shall have two, and those of the third rank shall have one."

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

Fires near this place

34 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 34 fires within 5 miles of North Swansea between 2006 and 2020, burning about 40 acres in total. None started naturally. 8 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/undetermined17
Arson/incendiarism8
Debris and open burning5
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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 2007Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresRhode Island Division of Forest Environmentnot named
21 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreRhode Island Division of Forest Environmentnot named
20 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
16 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
28 August 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 July 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 July 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 July 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreRhode Island Division of Forest Environmentnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Bristol County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 1,428 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,428 specimens collected within 10 miles of North Swansea between 1844 and 1975: 688 Plantae, 603 Animalia, 105 Fungi, 28 Chromista, 4 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A E Schuyler, A., A. Green 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
A photograph of the species Calla palustris, not of this specimenCalla palustris L.1844Thurber, G.
A photograph of the species Hibiscus moscheutos, not of this specimenHibiscus moscheutos subsp. moscheutos1844not recorded
A photograph of the species Pluchea camphorata, not of this specimenPluchea camphorata (L.) DC.1844not recorded
A photograph of the species Chamaecrista fasciculata, not of this specimenChamaecrista fasciculata (Michx.) Greene1846not recorded
A photograph of the species Ranunculus bulbosus, not of this specimenRanunculus bulbosus L.1850not recorded
A photograph of the species Vitis labrusca, not of this specimenVitis labrusca L.1850not recorded
A photograph of the species Apocynum cannabinum, not of this specimenApocynum cannabinum L.1855F. C. SeymourRehoboth
A photograph of the species Solidago latissimifolia, not of this specimenSolidago latissimifolia Mill.1867Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Mercenaria mercenaria, not of this specimenMercenaria mercenaria (Linnaeus, 1758)1870Lermond, NormanProvidence, Narragansett Bay. In market at Providence.
A photograph of the species Carex austrina, not of this specimenCarex austrina Mack.1871S. T. OlneyFields Point, Providence
A photograph of the species Carex muehlenbergii, not of this specimenCarex muehlenbergii Willd.1871S. T. OlneyFields Point
A photograph of the species Carex muskingumensis, not of this specimenCarex muskingumensis Schwein.1871Collector unknown

All 1,428 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of North Swansea: 1 plant, 1 past producer, 1 producer. 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
County Street Mine and MillSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
General Road Trucking CorpSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Swansea PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionPlant

Every working recorded in Bristol County

Storms near this place

2 since 2013

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names North Swansea in 2 storm reports between 2013 and 2019: 2 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2019FloodNorth Swansea-In Swansea, MA, Route 6 at Old Fall River Road was flooded and impassable.
September 2013FloodNorth Swansea-Route 136 was flooded with eight inches of water.

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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Miles Bridge1.1 miles37
Barneyville1.2 miles37
Luther Corner2.7 miles36
South Rehoboth2.7 miles37
Monroes2.8 miles37
South Seekonk3.3 miles37
Hortonville3.4 miles33
Touisset3.8 miles36

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 Q122597015The 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 617349. 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.