Thumpertown Beach, Massachusetts
33 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Eastham town. It lies in ZIP code area 02642. It stands on Herring Brook. The Survey maps it on the Orleans OE W quadrangle. It stands 98 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1887 to 1994The 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 sheets covering this place
33 sheetsMatched 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 Cape Cod Bay 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 New Bedford quadrangle1:100000
- 1994 USGS New Bedford quadrangle1:100000
Fires nearby
87 since 1992The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 87 fires within 5 miles of Thumpertown Beach between 1992 and 2020, burning about 46 acres in total. 7 started naturally. 1 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 33 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 15 |
| Debris and open burning | 11 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 11 |
| Natural | 7 |
| Fireworks | 4 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Other causes | 1 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 September 2018 | Natural | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 28 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | 1946 |
| 24 September 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Cape Cod National Seashore | EWTWNLINE |
| 22 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 22 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 22 September 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Cape Cod National Seashore | MAURICES |
| 18 September 2008 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Cape Cod National Seashore | WIRE FIRE |
| 5 August 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | 1520 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Specimens collected nearby
12 of 3,010 shownMuseums hold 3,010 specimens collected within 10 miles of Thumpertown Beach between 1819 and 1975: 1,804 Animalia, 866 Plantae, 147 Fungi, 81 Chromista, 68 Bacteria, 44 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. R. Alan Hodgdon Hodgdon, A. R. Hodgdon, A. R. Hodgdon; G. B. Rossbach 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 | ||
![]() | Pseudopleuronectes americanus (Walbaum, 1792) | 1853 | Atwood, Nathaniel E. | Cape Cod, Massachusetts |
![]() | Ammodytes americanus DeKay, 1842 | 1859 | Weinland, David Friedrich | Cape Cod, Massachusetts |
![]() | Pomatomus saltatrix (Linnaeus, 1766) | 1859 | Ordway, A. | Cape Cod, Massachusetts |
![]() | Stenotomus chrysops (Linnaeus, 1766) | 1860 | William Bemis | Cape Cod Bay, Wellfleet Harbor |
![]() | Paralichthys oblongus (Mitchill, 1815) | 1862 | MCZ team | Cape Cod, Massachusetts |
![]() | Carex foenea Willd. | 1864 | W. P. Alcott | Wellfleet |
![]() | Morone americana (Gmelin, 1789) | 1864 | MCZ team | Cape Cod, rivers, Massachusetts |
![]() | Scophthalmus aquosus (Mitchill, 1815) | 1864 | MCZ team | Cape Cod, Massachusetts |
![]() | Alosa mediocris (Mitchill, 1814) | 1871 | MCZ team | Brewster, Cape Cod, Massachusetts |
![]() | Peprilus triacanthus (Peck, 1804) | 1871 | Blake, John Henry | Cape Cod, Massachusetts |
![]() | Raja eglanteria Bosc, 1800 | 1871 | MCZ team | Cape Cod, Massachusetts |
All 3,010 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Mines and quarries nearby
1 within 5 milesThe federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Thumpertown Beach: 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M F Roach Company Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kingsbury Beach | 0.4 miles | 33 | |
| Campground Landing | 0.6 miles | 33 | |
| First Encounter Beach | 1.4 miles | 33 | |
| Cooks Brook Beach | 1.5 miles | 33 | |
| North Eastham | 1.6 miles | 33 | |
| Eastham | 1.8 miles | 33 | |
| Sunken Meadow Beach | 2.0 miles | 33 | |
| Rock Harbor | 3.2 miles | 33 |
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 Q42377541 | 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 616916. 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.











































