Oak Island, Massachusetts

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.

1892 1997

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.

• 1892 USGS Boston Bay quadrangle1:62500
• 1892 USGS Boston Bay quadrangle1:62500
• 1892 USGS Boston Bay quadrangle1:62500
• 1892 USGS Boston Bay quadrangle1:62500
• 1903 USGS Boston Bay quadrangle1:62500
• 1903 USGS Boston Bay quadrangle1:62500
• 1903 USGS Boston Bay quadrangle1:62500
• 1903 USGS Boston Bay quadrangle1:62500
• 1903 USGS Boston Bay quadrangle1:62500
• 1903 USGS Boston Bay quadrangle1:62500
• 1903 USGS Boston Bay quadrangle1:62500
• 1903 USGS Boston Bay quadrangle1:62500
• 1903 USGS Boston Bay quadrangle1:62500
• 1944 USGS Lynn quadrangle1:24000
• 1946 USGS Lynn quadrangle1:31680
• 1946 USGS Lynn quadrangle1:31680
• 1946 USGS Lynn quadrangle1:31680
• 1947 USGS Lynn quadrangle1:25000
• 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1949 USGS Lynn quadrangle1:31680
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1956 USGS Lynn quadrangle1:24000
• 1956 USGS Lynn quadrangle1:24000
• 1956 USGS Lynn quadrangle1:24000
• 1956 USGS Lynn quadrangle1:24000
• 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000
• 1970 USGS Lynn quadrangle1:25000
• 1970 USGS Lynn quadrangle1:24000
• 1977 USGS Lynn quadrangle1:25000
• 1984 USGS Provincetown quadrangle1:100000
• 1984 USGS Provincetown quadrangle1:100000
• 1985 USGS Lynn quadrangle1:25000
• 1985 USGS Lynn quadrangle1:25000
• 1997 USGS Lynn quadrangle1:25000

The county history of 1894 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for the smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 31 fires within 5 miles of Oak Island between 2003 and 2020, burning about 12 acres in total. None 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.

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Beachmont
• Crescent Beach
• Orient Heights
• Point of Pines
• Suffolk Downs Station
• Winthrop Highlands

Every fire recorded in Suffolk County

Museums hold 12,949 specimens collected within 10 miles of Oak Island between 1810 and 1975: 6,335 Plantae, 2,848 Fungi, 2,112 Animalia, 1,224 Chromista, 209 Bacteria, 118 Protozoa, 103 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A B Seymour, A Phelps Wyman 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	Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
	Thalictrum L.	1810	Boott, J.W.	Near Boston.
	Anemone L.	1815	Boott, J.	Andover Turnpike, 7 miles from Boston.
	Betula L.	1815	Boott, J.W.	Near Fresh Pond, Cambridge, 4 miles from Boston.
	Chenopodium album L.	1815	not recorded	Gathered at Bunker (properly Breed's) Hill.
	Corylus L.	1815	not recorded	Cambridge Port, 2 miles from Boston.
	Ericaceae	1815	Boott	Boston, U.S.A.
	Hepatica Mill.	1815	Boott, F.M.B.	Sweet Auburn.
	Acer carpinifolium Siebold & Zucc.	1900	A. K. Harrison	Harvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
	Acer palmatum var. dissectum (Thunb.) Miq.	1900	A. K. Harrison	Harvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
	Agaricus flavescens (Gillet) Sacc.	1900	G. E. Morris
	Agarum turneri Postels & Ruprecht	1900	J. Murdoch	Revere
	Alnus incana subsp. rugosa (Du Roi) R.T.Clausen	1900	J. Murdoch, Jr.	Roxbury

All 12,949 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Oak Island: 3 plants, 2 producers, 1 unknown. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Copper, Lead, Silica, Gold. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Every working recorded in Suffolk County

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 613390. 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.