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

Onset, Massachusetts

39 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Wareham town. It lies in ZIP code area 02558. It stands on Wickets Island. The Survey maps it on the Onset quadrangle. 1,617 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 10 feet above sea level.

Onset within Plymouth County

Population over time

2 figures

Onset grew from 1,573 to 1,617 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.

YearPeople Change
20101,573
20201,617+44 (+3%)

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 Onset, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of Onset, 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.

Fires nearby

211 since 2001

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 211 fires within 5 miles of Onset between 2001 and 2020, burning about 114 acres in total. 7 started naturally. 18 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/undetermined75
Debris and open burning55
Smoking26
Arson/incendiarism18
Misuse of fire by a minor15
Equipment and vehicle use8
Natural7
Recreation and ceremony7

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
9 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlWAREHAM
7 September 2020Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
7 September 2002Smokingunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
6 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlWAREHAM
5 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlWAREHAM
4 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlWAREHAM
4 September 2004Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
3 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Plymouth County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 2,630 shown

Museums hold 2,630 specimens collected within 10 miles of Onset between 1816 and 1975: 1,362 Animalia, 750 Plantae, 378 Fungi, 119 Chromista, 16 Bacteria, 5 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Mathieson, A. H. Moore 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 Tolyposporium eriocauli G.P.ClintonTolyposporium eriocauli G.P.Clinton1900G.P. Clinton
Specimen of Ustilago nuda (C.N.Jensen) Kellerm. & SwingleUstilago nuda (C.N.Jensen) Kellerm. & Swingle1900G. P. Clinton
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 Chilomycterus geometricus, not of this specimenChilomycterus geometricus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)1860unknownBuzzards Bay
A photograph of the species Eleocharis tuberculosa, not of this specimenEleocharis tuberculosa (Michx.) Roem. & Schult.1864W. Booth
A photograph of the species Gobiosoma bosc, not of this specimenGobiosoma bosc (Lacepède, 1800)1872V. Edwards & United States Bureau of FisheriesWareham River, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Opsanus tau, not of this specimenOpsanus tau (Linnaeus, 1766)1875not recordedCataimet, Massachusetts, Squateagus near Woods Hole
A photograph of the species Pandalus leptocerus, not of this specimenPandalus leptocerus S.I.Smith, 18811875United States Fish Commissionoff Martha's Vineyard, southwest ledge
A photograph of the species Polysiphonia urceolata, not of this specimenPolysiphonia urceolata (Lightfoot ex Dillwyn) Greville1875B. E. LivingstonWoods Hole, Butlers Point
A photograph of the species Alosa aestivalis, not of this specimenAlosa aestivalis (Mitchill, 1814)1899not recordedWest Falmouth, Massachusetts

All 2,630 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

1 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Onset: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. 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
Charge Pond Road Pit & PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Plymouth 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
Point Independence0.4 miles39
Riverside0.6 miles39
East Wareham1.4 miles39
Onset Station1.4 miles39
Jefferson Shores1.7 miles39
Indian Heights1.9 miles39
Parkwood Beach2.2 miles39
Pinehurst Beach2.8 miles39

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 OnsetAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q793648The 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 615548. 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.