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

West Opening, Massachusetts

32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Edgartown town. It lies in ZIP code area 02539. The Survey maps it on the Edgartown OE SE quadrangle.

West Opening 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 Opening, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of West Opening, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

32 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.

Fires nearby

8 since 2018

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of West Opening between 2018 and 2020, burning about 2 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 burning7
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1

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
18 July 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
17 May 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
12 May 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 April 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
29 March 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 March 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
9 November 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 November 2018Debris and open burningunder 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 nearby

12 of 3,817 shown

Museums hold 3,817 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Opening between 1828 and 1975: 2,511 Animalia, 981 Plantae, 161 Chromista, 113 Unrecorded, 39 Fungi, 12 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A AND P STARRETT, A. B. Hervey, A. B. Seymour 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 Fundulus heteroclitus, not of this specimenFundulus heteroclitus (Linnaeus, 1766)1871not recordedHolmes Hole
A photograph of the species Lomentaria orcadensis, not of this specimenLomentaria orcadensis (Harvey) F.S.Collins ex W.R.Taylor1871W. G. FarlowMartha's Vineyard
A photograph of the species Menidia menidia, not of this specimenMenidia menidia (Linnaeus, 1766)1871not recordedHolmes Hole, Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Ceramium fastigiatum, not of this specimenCeramium fastigiatum Harvey1874Lusk
A photograph of the species Hydrocotyle umbellata, not of this specimenHydrocotyle umbellata L.1874F. C. CurticeMartha's Vineyard
A photograph of the species Ilex glabra, not of this specimenIlex glabra (L.) A.Gray1874F. C. CurticeMartha's Vineyard
A photograph of the species Ptilimnium capillaceum, not of this specimenPtilimnium capillaceum (Michx.) Raf.1874Francis H. SnowMarthas Vinyard
A photograph of the species Ahnfeltia plicata, not of this specimenAhnfeltia plicata (Huds.) Fr.1875D. C. EatonMartha's Vineyard
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 Cepaea hortensis, not of this specimenCepaea hortensis (O.F.Müller, 1774)1899Reid, Rev G D Prime, HenryMartha's Vineyard, Oak Bluffs
A photograph of the species Echinorhynchus Zoega, not of this specimenEchinorhynchus Zoega, 17761899E. LintonMartha's Vineyard

All 3,817 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

1 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of West Opening: 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Grant Brothers Inc Pit and PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary

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
Katama1.0 miles32
Wepua Point1.4 miles32
Clevelandtown2.8 miles32
Chappaquiddick2.8 miles32
Edgartown3.1 miles32
Jerneganville5.0 miles32
Ocean Heights5.1 miles32
Hartsville7.3 miles32

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 Q122570379The 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 616576. 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.