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

Plum Island, Massachusetts

44 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1987. It stands in Newburyport City. It lies in ZIP code area 01950. It stands on Plum Island. The Survey maps it on the Newburyport East quadrangle.

Plum Island within Essex County

Then and now

1888 to 1987

The same ground, surveyed 99 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Plum Island, surveyed 1987
Topographic sheet of Plum Island, surveyed 1888

Topographic sheets covering this place

44 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

46 since 2007

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 46 fires within 5 miles of Plum Island between 2007 and 2020, burning about 20 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
Debris and open burning8
Arson/incendiarism8
Fireworks7
Missing data/not specified/undetermined5
Recreation and ceremony5
Power generation/transmission/distribution4
Smoking3
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Railroad operations and maintenance1
Other causes1
Equipment and vehicle use1

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 2007Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreParker River National Wildlife RefugeSALT PANNES
23 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 September 2017Fireworksunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 August 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 August 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSALISBURY
5 August 2016Recreation and ceremony2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSAILSBURY
27 August 2016Other causesunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlNEWBURY
4 July 2020Fireworksunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Essex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 2,310 shown

Museums hold 2,310 specimens collected within 10 miles of Plum Island between 1800 and 1975: 1,392 Plantae, 616 Animalia, 187 Fungi, 102 Chromista, 7 Unrecorded, 4 Protozoa, 2 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A A Eaton, A. A. Eaton, A. A. Eaton; R. G. Leavitt 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 Hypnum curvifolium Hedw.Hypnum curvifolium Hedw.1900John W. Huntington
Specimen of Plagiotheciella latebricola (Schimp.) M.Fleisch.Plagiotheciella latebricola (Schimp.) M.Fleisch.1900John W. Huntington
A photograph of the species Rhodobryum roseum, not of this specimenRhodobryum roseum (Hedw.) Limpr.1800J. W. HuntingtonAmesbury
A photograph of the species Dichelyma capillaceum, not of this specimenDichelyma capillaceum (Dicks.) Myrin1833J. W. Huntington
A photograph of the species Dumetella carolinensis, not of this specimenDumetella carolinensis (Linnaeus, 1766)1833J.S. AppletonWest Newbury
A photograph of the species Glyceria obtusa, not of this specimenGlyceria obtusa (Muhl.) Trin.1838W Oakes
A photograph of the species Clethra alnifolia, not of this specimenClethra alnifolia L.1840OakesHerbariumRowley
A photograph of the species Euphorbia polygonifolia, not of this specimenEuphorbia polygonifolia L.1840Wolle, J.Ipswich
A photograph of the species Iva frutescens, not of this specimenIva frutescens L.1840Oakesad Ipswich
A photograph of the species Potentilla anserina, not of this specimenPotentilla anserina L.1840Wolle, J.Ipswich
A photograph of the species Sisymbrium officinale, not of this specimenSisymbrium officinale (L.) Scop.1840OakesIpswich
A photograph of the species Dasya C.Agardh, not of this specimenDasya C.Agardh, 18241842Collector unknownLittle River near Old Town, 6 miles from the sea

All 2,310 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

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
Plumbush1.3 miles44
Browns Point2.0 miles44
Cushing2.1 miles44
Salisbury Beach2.1 miles44
Joppa2.4 miles44
Pine Island2.6 miles44
Rings Island2.8 miles44
Upper Green2.8 miles44

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 Plum IslandAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q4364365The 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 613734. 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.