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

West Falmouth, Massachusetts

38 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Falmouth town. It lies in ZIP code area 02540. It stands on Telegraph Hill. The Survey maps it on the Woods Hole quadrangle. 1,812 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 7 feet above sea level.

West Falmouth within Barnstable County

Population over time

2 figures

West Falmouth grew from 1,738 to 1,812 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
20101,738
20201,812+74 (+4%)

Then and now

1886 to 1994

The same ground, surveyed 108 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 Falmouth, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of West Falmouth, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

38 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 1890 county history

40 words on this township

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 chapter on Falmouth Town covers the township.

Read the chapter on Falmouth Town - 40 words.

Fires nearby

44 since 2002

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 44 fires within 5 miles of West Falmouth between 2002 and 2020, burning about 25 acres in total. None started naturally. 3 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/undetermined23
Debris and open burning14
Arson/incendiarism3
Equipment and vehicle use3
Recreation and ceremony1

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
25 September 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 September 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
17 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
12 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
1 September 2018Missing 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 Barnstable County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 9,724 shown

Museums hold 9,724 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Falmouth between 1791 and 1975: 4,861 Animalia, 3,042 Plantae, 842 Fungi, 790 Chromista, 147 Bacteria, 23 Unrecorded, 19 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A B Seymour, A. A. Cohen, A. B. Harvey 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
Specimen of Enallagma civile (Hagen, 1861)Enallagma civile (Hagen, 1861)1899J. BenedictWoods Hole
Specimen of Erythemis simplicicollis (Say, 1840)Erythemis simplicicollis (Say, 1840)1899J. BenedictWoods Hole
Specimen of Lestes unguiculatus Hagen, 1861Lestes unguiculatus Hagen, 18611899J. BenedictWoods Hole
A photograph of the species Drosera filiformis, not of this specimenDrosera filiformis var. filiformis1791not recorded
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

All 9,724 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

9 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of West Falmouth: 5 past producers, 4 producers. 4 still produce. 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
De Pontes Topsoil PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Falmouth Concrete PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Falmouth Concrete and Builders SuppSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Falmouth PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Hyannis Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Lawrence Lynch CorpSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Lawrence Pit and PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Moniz Crushing Co Pit and PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Moniz PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Barnstable County

Storms nearby

3 since 2008

The National Weather Service names West Falmouth in 3 storm reports between 2008 and 2015: 3 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2015Thunderstorm WindWest Falmouth$5,000A tree was downed at the intersection of Brick Kiln Road and Gifford Street by thunderstorm winds.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindWest Falmouth$5,000A tree on Blacksmith Shop Road was downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2008Thunderstorm WindWest Falmouth$500Large limbs were downed by thunderstorm winds. A nearby amateur radio operator recorded a 57 mph wind gust on their home weather station.

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
Chappaquoit0.8 miles38
Old Silver Beach1.6 miles39
Saconesset Hills1.8 miles38
Silver Beach2.5 miles39
Sippewisset2.8 miles38
North Falmouth3.0 miles40
North Falmouth Station3.2 miles40
Teaticket3.4 miles41

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.

Wikipedia article on West FalmouthAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q7985141The 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 616149. 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.