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Massachusetts Counties

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Massachusetts Counties

Massachusetts consists of the 14 counties. Massachusetts has abolished seven of its fourteen county governments, leaving five Counties with county-level local government (Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Norfolk, Plymouth) and two, Nantucket County and Suffolk County, with combined county/city government.

Dukes County, Massachusetts

Dukes County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Edgartown
Year Organized: 1695
Square Miles: 104

Court House:

81 Main Street
County Courthouse
Edgartown, MA 02539-0190

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Formerly a part of Dukes County, New York until 1691, the land at one time was literally the possession of the Duke of York

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

The county consists of the island of Martha's Vineyard, and the Elizabeth Islands (including Cuttyhunk). It was originally established as Dukes County, New York on November 1, 1683, and was transferred to Massachusetts and divided so that Nantucket Island became Nantucket County, Massachusetts on October 7, 1691. The statute created a county "by the name of Dukes County," as opposed to the standard form "the county of Dukes" which is the reason for the redundancy in the name.[

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 491 square miles (1,272 km²), of which, 104 square miles (269 km²) of it is land and 387 square miles (1,003 km²) of it is water. The total area is 79% water.

Neighboring Counties:

Northeast: Barnstable County
East: Nantucket Sound; Muskeget Channel
South: North Atlantic Ocean
Northwest: Vineyard Sound; Buzzards Bay

Cities and Towns:

- Aquinnah	town
- Chilmark	town
- Edgartown (County Seat)	town
- Gosnold	town
- Oak Bluffs	town
- Tisbury	town
- West Tisbury	town

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."