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

Shell Beach, Massachusetts

35 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Mattapoisett town. It lies in ZIP code area 02739. It stands on Sunken Ledge. The Survey maps it on the Marion quadrangle.

Shell Beach within Plymouth County

Then and now

1885 to 1994

The same ground, surveyed 109 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Shell Beach, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of Shell Beach, surveyed 1885

Topographic sheets covering this place

35 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

23 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 23 fires within 5 miles of Shell Beach between 2015 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.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning9
Missing data/not specified/undetermined8
Recreation and ceremony2
Smoking2
Misuse of fire by a minor2

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
2 August 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
1 August 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMATTAPOISETT
3 July 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMATTAPOISETT
26 June 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMATTAPOISETT
2 May 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
13 May 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMATTAPOISETT
11 May 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
7 April 2020Smoking1.5 acresMassachusetts 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 2,240 shown

Museums hold 2,240 specimens collected within 10 miles of Shell Beach between 1824 and 1975: 758 Plantae, 717 Fungi, 586 Animalia, 141 Chromista, 33 Bacteria, 5 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Gridley, A. B. Seymour, A. C. Mathieson 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 Gamochaeta purpurea, not of this specimenGamochaeta purpurea (L.) Cabrera1824T. A. Greene
A photograph of the species Lythrum salicaria, not of this specimenLythrum salicaria L.1831T. A. Greene
A photograph of the species Mentha aquatica, not of this specimenMentha aquatica L.1831Collector unknownNew Bedford. [Inferred county from precise loc.]
A photograph of the species Trypethelium virens, not of this specimenTrypethelium virens Tuck.1848ex herb. OakesNew Bedford.
A photograph of the species Endocarpon pusillum, not of this specimenEndocarpon pusillum Hedw.1858H. WilleyFort Phoenix. Fairhaven.
A photograph of the species Chilomycterus geometricus, not of this specimenChilomycterus geometricus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)1860unknownBuzzards Bay
A photograph of the species Menegazzia terebrata, not of this specimenMenegazzia terebrata (Hoffm.) A.Massal.1860H. WilleyNew Bedford
A photograph of the species Abrothallus parmeliarum, not of this specimenAbrothallus parmeliarum (Sommerf.) Nyl., 18691862Willey H.Weymouth, New Bedford
A photograph of the species Agyrium rufum, not of this specimenAgyrium rufum (Pers.) Fr.1862Willey HenryNew Bedford
Agapostemon sericeus (Förster, 1771)1899William WheelerNew Bedford
A photograph of the species Alosa aestivalis, not of this specimenAlosa aestivalis (Mitchill, 1814)1899B. Bean & V. EdwardsMassachusetts, Buzzards Bay
A photograph of the species Aluterus schoepfii, not of this specimenAluterus schoepfii (Walbaum, 1792)1899not recordedWest Falmouth, Massachusetts

All 2,240 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

2 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Shell Beach: 2 past producers. 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
Albert WintersSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Wareham PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Plymouth County

Storms nearby

5 since 2008

The National Weather Service names Shell Beach in 5 storm reports between 2008 and 2023: 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning, 1 tornado. 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
August 2023Tornado (EF1)Shell Beach$10,000A small EF-1 tornado touched down in the town of Mattapoisett Massachusetts|at 11:20 AM EDT. The storm was on the ground for approximately 3 minutes.|The storm moved to the northeast at approximately 20 MPH and lifted off the|ground on North Street just north of Eldorado Drive. Numerous large Pine and |Maple trees were uprooted falling in serveral directions. There were also |numerous pine trees along the path that were snapped off between 10 and 20|feet above the ground. The most concentrated damage was found along Eldorado|Drive by Granada Court. The top wind speed was estimated to be 95 mph.
August 2008Thunderstorm WindShell Beach$7,000Trees and wires along Long plain and Beechwood Roads were downed by thunderstorm winds, blocking these roads.
August 2015Thunderstorm WindShell Beach$5,000A tree and wires on Point Coconett were downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2008LightningShell Beach$3,000A garage was struck by lightning and caught fire.
August 2023Thunderstorm WindShell Beach$1,500In Mattapoisett, there were trees and wires down on Hereford Hill Rd.

Every storm 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
Grand Vue0.3 miles35
Antassawamock1.1 miles35
Mattapoisett1.3 miles35
Cannonville1.3 miles35
Crescent Beach1.3 miles35
Holly Woods2.8 miles35
Alms House2.9 miles35
Harbor Beach3.0 miles35

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 614869. 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.