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

White Island Shores, Massachusetts

39 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Wareham town. It lies in ZIP code area 02538. It stands on East Branch Maple Springs Brook. The Survey maps it on the Wareham quadrangle. 2,180 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 82 feet above sea level.

White Island Shores within Plymouth County

Population over time

2 figures

White Island Shores grew from 2,106 to 2,180 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
20102,106
20202,180+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 White Island Shores, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of White Island Shores, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

39 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

148 since 2001

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 148 fires within 5 miles of White Island Shores between 2001 and 2020, burning about 81 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 10 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/undetermined45
Debris and open burning45
Smoking21
Misuse of fire by a minor13
Arson/incendiarism10
Recreation and ceremony5
Equipment and vehicle use4
Natural4
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
9 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlWAREHAM
7 September 2020Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
7 September 2002Smokingunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
6 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlWAREHAM
5 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlWAREHAM
4 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlWAREHAM
3 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 September 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 Plymouth County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 3,493 shown

Museums hold 3,493 specimens collected within 10 miles of White Island Shores between 1816 and 1975: 2,433 Animalia, 627 Plantae, 330 Fungi, 95 Chromista, 5 Bacteria, 3 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Mathieson, A. H. Moore 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 Tolyposporium eriocauli G.P.ClintonTolyposporium eriocauli G.P.Clinton1900G.P. Clinton
Specimen of Ustilago nuda (C.N.Jensen) Kellerm. & SwingleUstilago nuda (C.N.Jensen) Kellerm. & Swingle1900G. P. Clinton
A photograph of the species Cistus L., not of this specimenCistus L.1816Boott, F.M.Sandwich, Massts. [=Sandwich, Massachusetts].
Lythraceae1816Boott, J.W.Sandwich, Mass'ts. | [On reverse of sheet:] From Sandwich, Mass'ts U.S.A. [=From Sandwich, Massachusetts, U.S.A.]
A photograph of the species Malva neglecta, not of this specimenMalva neglecta Wallr.1816Boott, J.W.Sandwich. Mass.tts.
A photograph of the species Juncus greenei, not of this specimenJuncus greenei Oakes & Tuck.1825W. OakesPlymouth
A photograph of the species Baptisia tinctoria, not of this specimenBaptisia tinctoria (L.) R.Br.1837J. Blake
A photograph of the species Amaranthus hybridus, not of this specimenAmaranthus hybridus L.1855not recorded
A photograph of the species Clethra alnifolia, not of this specimenClethra alnifolia L.1855not recorded
A photograph of the species Euthamia lanceolata, not of this specimenEuthamia lanceolata (L.) G.L.Nesom1855not recorded
Cortinarius collinitus (Sow. ex Fr.) Fr.1899H. WebsterWareham
Euspilotus conformis (J.E.LeConte, 1845)1899not recordedMarion

All 3,493 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 White Island Shores: 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
Charge Pond Road Pit & PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Plymouth 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
Pondville1.9 miles39
Indian Heights2.8 miles39
Jefferson Shores3.3 miles39
East Wareham3.6 miles39
Riverside3.6 miles39
Onset Station3.8 miles39
Point Independence4.1 miles39
Onset4.2 miles39

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 White Island ShoresAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q7994939The 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 615470. 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.