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

South Westport, Massachusetts

37 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Westport town. It lies in ZIP code area 02790. It stands on Seal Rock. The Survey maps it on the Head of Westport quadrangle.

South Westport within Bristol County

Then and now

1888 to 1985

The same ground, surveyed 97 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 Westport, surveyed 1985

Topographic sheet of South Westport, surveyed 1888

Topographic sheets covering this place

37 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 county-history sources

119,038 words on this township

History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883 names this settlement in its chapter on Westport Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Documentary History. - The following is a record of the first town-meeting, with names of officers elected, together with other interesting votes, among which appear the votes concerning the location and building of the first town-house, which seemed to have given the good j>eople of the town considerable vexation :

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

Nineteen years later the militia of ancient Dartmouth had been increased to nine companies, and that part of these forces in what subsequently became Westport appeared under these officers, viz. : Robert Earl, captain ; Sylvester Brownell, lieutenant; and John Hix, ensign.

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

Barber, in his " Historical Collections," published in 1848, in speaking of Westport, says, "This town, previous to its incorporation in 1787, was a part of Dartmouth. There are two small villages in the town, one at the head of East River, the other at Westport Point. The people are much divided in religious sentiments. There are five meeting-houses : two for Friends, two for Baptists, and one for Methodists. There is also a small society of Congregational ists. The village at the head of East or Nochacuck River is about eight* miles from New Bedford, eight from Franklin, and twenty-one from Newport. Formerly considerable quantities of timber were obtained in this town. The whale fishery is now an important branch of business ; eight whaling vessels now go out from Westport Point. There is a cottonmill in this town having 3072 spindles, which in 1837 consumed 300,000 pounds of cotton ; 270,000 pounds of cotton yarn were manufactured, the value of which was $67,500."

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Westport Town - it names this place 6 more 6 times.

Fires near this place

36 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 36 fires within 5 miles of South Westport between 2002 and 2020, burning about 25 acres in total. None started naturally. 5 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/undetermined	16
Debris and open burning	7
Arson/incendiarism	5
Recreation and ceremony	3
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Fireworks	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1

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

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
15 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
9 August 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 August 2018	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 August 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
22 August 2020	Fireworks	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 July 2018	Fireworks	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
21 June 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
15 June 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Bristol County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 1,796 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,796 specimens collected within 10 miles of South Westport between 1824 and 1975: 806 Animalia, 560 Fungi, 390 Plantae, 33 Chromista, 4 Unrecorded, 3 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Gridley, A. B. Hervey, A. Clark 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.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Gamochaeta purpurea (L.) Cabrera	1824	T. A. Greene
Lythrum salicaria L.	1831	T. A. Greene
Mentha aquatica L.	1831	Collector unknown	New Bedford. [Inferred county from precise loc.]
Trypethelium virens Tuck.	1848	ex herb. Oakes	New Bedford.
Endocarpon pusillum Hedw.	1858	H. Willey	Fort Phoenix. Fairhaven.
Menegazzia terebrata (Hoffm.) A.Massal.	1860	H. Willey	New Bedford
Pandion haliaetus (Linnaeus, 1758)	1860	Alan Poole	Westport, Westport River, Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary
Scolopax minor J.F.Gmelin, 1789	1860	Alan Poole	Westport
Abrothallus parmeliarum (Sommerf.) Nyl., 1869	1862	Willey H.	Weymouth, New Bedford
Agyrium rufum (Pers.) Fr.	1862	Willey Henry	New Bedford
Anaptychia palmatula (Michx.) Vain., 1899	1862	H. Willey	New Bedford.
Anisomeridium polypori (Ellis & Everh.) M.E.Barr	1862	H. Willey	New Bedford

All 1,796 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of South Westport: 7 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Clearwater Stone Inc	Stone	Past Producer
Boan Farm Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Clearwater Pit and Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Dartmouth Town Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Louis Fernandez Sand and Gravel	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Medeiros Washed Sand & Stone Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Pine Hill Sand and Gravel	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Westport Division	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Bristol County

Storms near this place

1 since 2021

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names South Westport in 1 storm report between 2021 and 2021: 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
September 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	South Westport	$800	In Westport, a tree and wires were down on Horseneck Road.

Every storm recorded in Bristol 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Handy Four Corners	1.0 miles	37
Gidleys Corner	1.2 miles	37
Slades Corner	1.3 miles	37
Snell Corner	1.6 miles	37
Camp Noquochoke	1.7 miles	37
Central Village	1.8 miles	37
Booth Corner	2.0 miles	37
Macombers Corner	2.6 miles	37

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 Q122542205

The 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 613270. 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.