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

Old Silver Beach, Massachusetts

39 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Falmouth town. It lies in ZIP code area 02556. It stands on Herring Brook. The Survey maps it on the Onset quadrangle.

Old Silver Beach within Barnstable County

Then and now

1886 to 1994

The same ground, surveyed 108 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Old Silver Beach, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of Old Silver Beach, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

39 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 1890 county history

40 words on this township

The county history of 1890 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for the smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The chapter on Falmouth Town covers the township.

Read the chapter on Falmouth Town - 40 words.

Fires nearby

49 since 2002

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 49 fires within 5 miles of Old Silver Beach between 2002 and 2020, burning about 29 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 7 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/undetermined26
Debris and open burning9
Arson/incendiarism7
Equipment and vehicle use5
Recreation and ceremony1
Natural1

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
4 September 2004Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
2 September 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
17 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
12 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
10 September 2002Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
5 August 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control2152943

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Barnstable County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 10,309 shown

Museums hold 10,309 specimens collected within 10 miles of Old Silver Beach between 1791 and 1975: 5,349 Animalia, 3,085 Plantae, 896 Fungi, 789 Chromista, 147 Bacteria, 24 Unrecorded, 19 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A B Seymour, A. A. Cohen, A. B. Harvey 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 Enallagma civile (Hagen, 1861)Enallagma civile (Hagen, 1861)1899J. BenedictWoods Hole
Specimen of Erythemis simplicicollis (Say, 1840)Erythemis simplicicollis (Say, 1840)1899J. BenedictWoods Hole
Specimen of Lestes unguiculatus Hagen, 1861Lestes unguiculatus Hagen, 18611899J. BenedictWoods Hole
A photograph of the species Drosera filiformis, not of this specimenDrosera filiformis var. filiformis1791not recorded
A photograph of the species Polysiphonia flexicaulis, not of this specimenPolysiphonia flexicaulis (Harvey) F.S.Collins1839unknownWoods Hole
A photograph of the species Ectocarpus littoralis, not of this specimenEctocarpus littoralis (L.) Lyngb.1841B. F. D. RunkWoods Hole, Nobska Point, wash
A photograph of the species Polysiphonia fibrata, not of this specimenPolysiphonia fibrata (Dillwyn) Harvey1844Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Alosa aestivalis, not of this specimenAlosa aestivalis (Mitchill, 1814)1852not recordedWood's Hole, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Clupea harengus, not of this specimenClupea harengus Linnaeus, 17581852not recordedWood's Hole, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Menidia menidia, not of this specimenMenidia menidia (Linnaeus, 1766)1852not recordedWood's Hole, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Prionotus evolans, not of this specimenPrionotus evolans (Linnaeus, 1766)1852not recordedWood's Hole, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Ulva clathrata, not of this specimenUlva clathrata (Roth) C.Agardh1852G. W. Perry

All 10,309 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

8 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Old Silver Beach: 4 past producers, 4 producers. 4 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
De Pontes Topsoil PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Falmouth Concrete PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Falmouth PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Hyannis Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Lawrence Lynch CorpSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Lawrence Pit and PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Moniz Crushing Co Pit and PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Moniz PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working 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
Silver Beach0.9 miles39
West Falmouth1.6 miles38
North Falmouth1.6 miles40
Chappaquoit1.7 miles38
North Falmouth Station1.9 miles40
Megansett2.0 miles40
Amrita2.5 miles40
Cataumet2.9 miles40

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 Q122569032The 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 615547. 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.