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

West Chop, Massachusetts

33 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Tisbury town. It lies in ZIP code area 02568. It sits by Husselton Head. The Survey maps it on the Edgartown quadrangle.

West Chop within Dukes 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 West Chop, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of West Chop, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

33 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

71,194 words on this township

The History of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, published 1911 names this settlement in its chapter on Tisbury Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

It is probable that for many years subsequent to the settlement at Edgartown, West Chop, like its opposite neighbor, East Chop, remained uninhabited by whites. The first intimation which we find of the settlement of English on this territory, which was uniformly called Homes Hole neck, is undoubtedly found in the following letter from Thomas Mayhew, Sr., to Gov. John Winthrop, Jr., of Connecticut, regarding a purchase made of the Indian sachems, Poketapace and Pesoonquan, by Thomas Layton and Peter Tallman, two land owners, and possibly residents of Edgartown.

Passage source: The History of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, published 1911.

David Culver, 1825-6, and John Adams, 1826-7, followed in succession. In this second pastorate of '^ Reformation Adams" the first known camp-meeting held on the Vineyard occurred in July and August, 1827, in a grove near the West Chop lighthouse. Of this event the preacher speaks as follows : -

Passage source: The History of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, published 1911.

Church of the Unity. - The residents who had attended Dr. Stevens' services for a considerable time desired to continue the skeleton organization that had existed in his day, but for a number of years the project of reviving his work languished. The matter was finally taken up by an association of Unitarians, called the Channing Conference. A neat building was erected by it on the West Chop road, on a picturesque knoll in the grove, in 1896, and in 1898 the ''Vineyard Haven Unitarian Society" was organized to maintain services therein. Since that date a regular ministerial supply has been had, beginning with W. C. Litchfield, 1898-1903; W. H. Johnson, 1905-07; 1. P. Quimby, 1907 (present incumbent). The meeting-house is generally known as the Stevens Memorial Chapel.

Passage source: The History of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, published 1911.

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 Tisbury Town - it names this place 7 more 7 times.

Fires near this place

30 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 30 fires within 5 miles of West Chop between 2015 and 2020, burning about 16 acres in total. None started naturally. None 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
Debris and open burning12
Missing data/not specified/undetermined11
Equipment and vehicle use3
Recreation and ceremony2
Fireworks1
Smoking1

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
7 September 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
6 September 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 September 2020Recreation and ceremony1.3 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
20 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
10 August 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
29 July 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 July 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Dukes County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 14,958 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 14,958 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Chop between 1828 and 1975: 8,628 Animalia, 4,158 Plantae, 1,095 Chromista, 756 Fungi, 158 Bacteria, 115 Unrecorded, 48 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A AND P STARRETT, A B Seymour, A. A. Cohen 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
A photograph of the species Tipularia discolor, not of this specimenTipularia discolor (Pursh) Nutt.1828OakesMartha's Vineyard
A photograph of the species Polysiphonia flexicaulis, not of this specimenPolysiphonia flexicaulis (Harvey) F.S.Collins1839unknownWoods Hole
A photograph of the species Ectocarpus littoralis, not of this specimenEctocarpus littoralis (L.) Lyngb.1841B. F. D. RunkWoods Hole, Nobska Point, wash
A photograph of the species Polysiphonia fibrata, not of this specimenPolysiphonia fibrata (Dillwyn) Harvey1844Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Alosa aestivalis, not of this specimenAlosa aestivalis (Mitchill, 1814)1852not recordedWood's Hole, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Clupea harengus, not of this specimenClupea harengus Linnaeus, 17581852not recordedWood's Hole, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Menidia menidia, not of this specimenMenidia menidia (Linnaeus, 1766)1852not recordedWood's Hole, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Prionotus evolans, not of this specimenPrionotus evolans (Linnaeus, 1766)1852not recordedWood's Hole, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Ulva clathrata, not of this specimenUlva clathrata (Roth) C.Agardh1852G. W. Perry
A photograph of the species Acanthurus bahianus, not of this specimenAcanthurus bahianus Castelnau, 18551899not recordedWoods Hole, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Alosa pseudoharengus, not of this specimenAlosa pseudoharengus (Wilson, 1811)1899not recordedMassachusetts, Katama Bay near Edgartown
A photograph of the species Balistes capriscus, not of this specimenBalistes capriscus Gmelin, 17891899V. EdwardsWoods Hole, Massachusetts

All 14,958 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of West Chop: 1 past producer, 1 producer. 1 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
Dump Road PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Red Hill Pit and PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Dukes 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
Vineyard Haven1.8 miles33
Eastville1.8 miles21
East Chop2.0 miles21
Vineyard Highlands2.2 miles21
Lagoon Heights2.4 miles32
Oak Bluffs2.8 miles32
Oklahoma Heights2.9 miles33
Makonikey3.1 miles33

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 616147. 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.