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

South Brewster, Massachusetts

31 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Brewster town. It lies in ZIP code area 02631. The Survey maps it on the Harwich quadrangle.

South Brewster within Barnstable County

Then and now

1887 to 1994

The same ground, surveyed 107 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of South Brewster, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of South Brewster, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

31 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

30 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 Brewster Town covers the township.

Read the chapter on Brewster Town - 30 words.

Fires nearby

73 since 2003

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 73 fires within 5 miles of South Brewster between 2003 and 2020, burning about 36 acres in total. 5 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/undetermined32
Debris and open burning12
Equipment and vehicle use11
Arson/incendiarism7
Natural5
Recreation and ceremony4
Fireworks1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
24 September 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
17 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
10 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control1993
6 August 2020Fireworksunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 August 2015Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control1520
3 August 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Barnstable County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 3,920 shown

Museums hold 3,920 specimens collected within 10 miles of South Brewster between 1819 and 1975: 2,116 Animalia, 1,369 Plantae, 237 Fungi, 90 Chromista, 68 Bacteria, 39 Unrecorded, 1 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. R. Hodgdon, A. R. Hodgdon 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
Laminaria caperata Bachelot de la Pylaie, 18241819Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Carya tomentosa, not of this specimenCarya tomentosa (Lam.) Nutt.1840Collector unspecified
A photograph of the species Alosa mediocris, not of this specimenAlosa mediocris (Mitchill, 1814)1871MCZ teamBrewster, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Bittiolum alternatum, not of this specimenBittiolum alternatum (Say, 1822)1872Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish CommissionCape Cod
A photograph of the species Buccinum undatum, not of this specimenBuccinum undatum Linnaeus, 17581872Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish CommissionCape Cod
Gastropoda1872Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish CommissionCape Cod
A photograph of the species Helix Linnaeus, not of this specimenHelix Linnaeus, 17581872Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish CommissionCape Cod
A photograph of the species Hydrobia minuta, not of this specimenHydrobia minuta (Totten, 1834)1872Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish CommissionCape Cod
A photograph of the species Lacuna vincta, not of this specimenLacuna vincta (Montagu, 1803)1872Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish CommissionCape Cod
A photograph of the species Littorina littorea, not of this specimenLittorina littorea (Linnaeus, 1758)1872Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish CommissionCape Cod
A photograph of the species Littorina rudis, not of this specimenLittorina rudis (Maton, 1797)1872Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish CommissionCape Cod
A photograph of the species Lunatia heros, not of this specimenLunatia heros (Say, 1822)1872Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish CommissionCape Cod

All 3,920 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 South Brewster: 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
Nickerson T W PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Barnstable County

Storms nearby

2 since 2017

The National Weather Service names South Brewster in 2 storm reports between 2017 and 2018: 1 flash flood, 1 flood. 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 2017Flash FloodSouth Brewster$12,000At 1139 PM EST, a basement was flooded on Robbins Hill Road in Brewster. At 1215 AM EST, the Ocean Edge Mansion on Main Street had flooding in the parking lot and the west wing of the building. At 1220 AM EST, a basement was reported flooded on Endicott Lane. At 1 AM EST, a basement was flooded on Lunds Farm Way.
August 2018FloodSouth Brewster-At 11:58 AM EST, Sheep Pond Drive and Clark Road were closed due to flooding.

Every storm 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
East Brewster1.4 miles32
Brewster1.5 miles32
Pleasant Lake2.6 miles31
West Brewster2.7 miles31
South Orleans3.6 miles33
East Harwich3.7 miles31
Namskaket3.8 miles33
Harwich4.3 miles31

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 Q122569451The 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 615996. 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.