South Orleans, Massachusetts

The same ground, surveyed 106 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1887 1993

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.

• 1887 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
• 1889 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
• 1942 USGS Nauset quadrangle1:125000
• 1944 USGS Orleans quadrangle1:31680
• 1944 USGS Orleans quadrangle1:31680
• 1944 USGS Orleans quadrangle1:31680
• 1946 USGS Orleans quadrangle1:24000
• 1946 USGS Orleans quadrangle1:25000
• 1947 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
• 1947 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
• 1947 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
• 1947 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
• 1947 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
• 1948 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
• 1957 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
• 1958 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
• 1962 USGS Orleans quadrangle1:24000
• 1962 USGS Orleans quadrangle1:24000
• 1963 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
• 1974 USGS Orleans quadrangle1:24000
• 1974 USGS Orleans quadrangle1:25000
• 1974 USGS Orleans quadrangle1:25000
• 1977 USGS Orleans quadrangle1:25000
• 1986 USGS Chatham quadrangle1:100000
• 1993 USGS Chatham quadrangle1:100000

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 federal wildfire occurrence database lists 87 fires within 5 miles of South Orleans between 1995 and 2020, burning about 48 acres in total. 8 started naturally. 6 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.

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• South Brewster
• East Brewster
• East Orleans
• Eastham
• First Encounter Beach
• Namskaket

Every fire recorded in Barnstable County

Museums hold 3,087 specimens collected within 10 miles of South Orleans between 1819 and 1975: 1,463 Animalia, 1,287 Plantae, 165 Fungi, 68 Bacteria, 56 Chromista, 48 Unrecorded. 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	Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
	Laminaria caperata Bachelot de la Pylaie, 1824	1819	Collector unknown
	Carya tomentosa (Lam.) Nutt.	1840	Collector unspecified
	Alosa mediocris (Mitchill, 1814)	1871	MCZ team	Brewster, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
	Bittiolum alternatum (Say, 1822)	1872	Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission	Cape Cod
	Buccinum undatum Linnaeus, 1758	1872	Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission	Cape Cod
	Gastropoda	1872	Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission	Cape Cod
	Helix Linnaeus, 1758	1872	Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission	Cape Cod
	Hydrobia minuta (Totten, 1834)	1872	Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission	Cape Cod
	Lacuna vincta (Montagu, 1803)	1872	Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission	Cape Cod
	Littorina littorea (Linnaeus, 1758)	1872	Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission	Cape Cod
	Littorina rudis (Maton, 1797)	1872	Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission	Cape Cod
	Lunatia heros (Say, 1822)	1872	Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission	Cape Cod

All 3,087 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of South Orleans: 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.

Every working recorded in Barnstable County

The National Weather Service names South Orleans in 1 storm report between 2019 and 2019: 1 thunderstorm wind. 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.

Every storm recorded in Barnstable County

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

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.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 616914. 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.