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

Wellfleet, Massachusetts

34 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Wellfleet town. It lies in ZIP code area 02667. It stands on Cannon Hill. The Survey maps it on the Wellfleet quadrangle.

Wellfleet 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 Wellfleet, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of Wellfleet, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

34 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.

Photographs

2 photographs,

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

Henry Grey House, Pamet Point Road, Wellfleet, Barnstable County, MA
Henry Grey House, Pamet Point Road, Wellfleet, Barnstable County, MA
Unattributed, . Library of Congress
Atwood-Higgins House, Bound Brook Island Road, Wellfleet, Barnstable County, MA
Atwood-Higgins House, Bound Brook Island Road, Wellfleet, Barnstable County, MA
Unattributed, . Library of Congress

Fires nearby

64 since 1992

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 64 fires within 5 miles of Wellfleet between 1992 and 2020, burning about 31 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 2 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/undetermined20
Recreation and ceremony12
Equipment and vehicle use7
Debris and open burning6
Power generation/transmission/distribution5
Smoking5
Fireworks2
Other causes2
Arson/incendiarism2
Natural2
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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
5 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 September 2004Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreCape Cod National SeashoreEWTWNLINE
22 September 2020Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 September 2020Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreCape Cod National SeashoreLONG POND ROAD FIRE
22 September 2020Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreCape Cod National SeashoreGROSS HILL ROAD FIRE
22 September 1997Debris and open burning1.0 acresCape Cod National SeashoreSHAPIRO
22 September 1995Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreCape Cod National SeashoreMAURICES
18 September 2008Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreCape Cod National SeashoreWIRE FIRE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Barnstable County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 3,204 shown

Museums hold 3,204 specimens collected within 10 miles of Wellfleet between 1819 and 1975: 2,316 Animalia, 627 Plantae, 96 Chromista, 62 Bacteria, 61 Unrecorded, 42 Fungi. 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 SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
Laminaria caperata Bachelot de la Pylaie, 18241819Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Pseudopleuronectes americanus, not of this specimenPseudopleuronectes americanus (Walbaum, 1792)1853Atwood, Nathaniel E.Cape Cod, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Ammodytes americanus, not of this specimenAmmodytes americanus DeKay, 18421859Weinland, David FriedrichCape Cod, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Pomatomus saltatrix, not of this specimenPomatomus saltatrix (Linnaeus, 1766)1859Ordway, A.Cape Cod, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Stenotomus chrysops, not of this specimenStenotomus chrysops (Linnaeus, 1766)1860William BemisCape Cod Bay, Wellfleet Harbor
A photograph of the species Paralichthys oblongus, not of this specimenParalichthys oblongus (Mitchill, 1815)1862MCZ teamCape Cod, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Carex foenea, not of this specimenCarex foenea Willd.1864W. P. AlcottWellfleet
A photograph of the species Morone americana, not of this specimenMorone americana (Gmelin, 1789)1864MCZ teamCape Cod, rivers, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Scophthalmus aquosus, not of this specimenScophthalmus aquosus (Mitchill, 1815)1864MCZ teamCape Cod, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Peprilus triacanthus, not of this specimenPeprilus triacanthus (Peck, 1804)1871Blake, John HenryCape Cod, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Raja eglanteria, not of this specimenRaja eglanteria Bosc, 18001871MCZ teamCape Cod, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Libinia emarginata, not of this specimenLibinia emarginata Leach, 18151878United States Fish CommissionProvincetown

All 3,204 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms nearby

10 since 1997

The National Weather Service names Wellfleet in 10 storm reports between 1997 and 2020: 5 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 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 2018FloodWellfleet$30,000At 7:27 PM EST, the Beachcomber Restaurant in Wellfleet was evacuated due to flooding in the restaurant. At 7:35 PM EST, a car was floating in flood waters at the junction of Hamblin Farm Road and Chequessett Neck Road in Wellfleet. At 7:39 PM EST a car was towed from flood waters on Cove Road. At 8:06 PM EST a basement was flooded on Kendrick Avenue.
August 2015Thunderstorm WindWellfleet$10,000Trees and wires were downed on Chipman's Way.
August 2008Thunderstorm WindWellfleet$5,000Trees were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindWellfleet$1,000A large branch on Marconi Station Road was downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2008HailWellfleet$1,000Some vehicle damage occurred with quarter sized hail that fell in Wellfleet.
November 2020Thunderstorm WindWellfleet-In Wellfleet, on Lieutenant Island, an amateur radio operator recorded a wind gust to 65 mph at 1219 PM EST.
August 2008HailWellfleet-no account filed
August 2008HailWellfleet-no account filed
June 2006HailWellfleet-no account filed
July 1997HailWellfleet-no account filed

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
Mayo Beach0.7 miles34
Camp Mar Vel (historical)0.7 miles34
South Wellfleet2.4 miles34
Cahoon Hollow2.5 miles34
Newcomb Hollow2.7 miles34
Wellfleet by the Sea2.9 miles34
South Truro2.9 miles34
Le Count Hollow (historical)3.1 miles34

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 616837. 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.

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.