Cape Cod

This article refers to the geographic landform. For other meanings of Cape Cod, see Cape Cod (disambiguation).

Cape Cod (1033 km²; called simply "The Cape" by locals) is an arm-shaped peninsula forming the Easternmost portion of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States. It is coextensive with Barnstable County. Although Cape Cod was originally connected to the mainland, the Cape Cod Canal, completed in 1914, effectively transformed Cape Cod into a large island.

Geography

Cape Cod consists of four portions:

The Upper Cape is the section of Cape Cod closest to the mainland. This portion of the Cape includes the towns of Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee, and Sandwich. While part of the town of Barnstable is located on the Upper Cape, it is more commonly considered to be in the Mid-Cape area. Falmouth is the home of the famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and several other research organizations, and is also the most-used connection to Martha's Vineyard via ferry. Falmouth is composed of several villages including Woods Hole, Quissett, West Falmouth, North Falmouth, Hatchville, East Falmouth, Teaticket, and Waquoit.

The Mid-Cape includes the towns of Barnstable, Dennis and Yarmouth. There are seven villages in Barnstable: Barnstable, Centerville, Cotuit, Hyannis, Marstons Mills, Osterville, and West Barnstable. There are many beautiful beaches in the Mid-Cape area, including Kalmus Beach in Hyannis, which gets its name from one of the inventors of Technicolor, Herbert Kalmus. This popular windsurfing destination was bequeathed to the town of Barnstable by Dr. Kalmus on condition that it not be developed, possibly one of the first instances of open-space preservation in the US. There are three villages in Yarmouth: South Yarmouth, West Yarmouth and Yarmouthport.

The "Lower Cape" is the narrower portion of the cape, which bends sharply to the north. This section includes the towns of Brewster, Chatham, Harwich, Orleans.

The Outer Cape with the towns of Eastham, Provincetown, Truro, and Wellfleet. This area is home to some of the top ranked beaches in America namely the Coast Guard, and Nauset beaches in Eastham, and is where the Pilgrims first landed regardless of the popular myth of Plymouth Rock.

The large area of water enclosed by Cape Cod and the mainland seacoast to the north is Cape Cod Bay; west of Cape Cod is Buzzards Bay. To the south lie Nantucket sound; Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard (both large islands); and the mostly-privately-owned Elizabeth Islands in the town of Gosnold, of which the most populated is Cuttyhunk.

Cape Cod is connected to the mainland by a pair of canal-spanning highway bridges from Bourne and Sagamore that were constructed in the 1930s, and a vertical-lift railroad bridge. The entire Cape is roughly bisected by U.S. Route 6, locally known as the Mid-Cape Highway, which runs as a four- and then two-lane freeway between Sandwich and Orleans and then as a surface street to Provincetown. Commercial air service to Cape Cod occurs at Barnstable Municipal Airport and Provincetown Municipal Airport.

Geology

Most of Cape Cod's geological history involves the advance and retreat of the last continental ice sheet in the late Pleistocene geological era and the subsequent changes in sea level. Using radiocarbon dating techniques, researchers have determined that around 23,000 years ago, the ice sheet reached its maximum southward advance over North America, and then started to retreat. By about 18,000 years ago, the ice sheet had retreated past Cape Cod. By roughly 15,000 years ago, it had retreated past southern New England.

When so much of Earth's water was locked up in massive ice sheets, the sea level was lower. As the ice began to melt, the sea began to rise. Initially, sea level rose quickly, about 15 meters (50 feet) per 1,000 years, but then the rate declined. On Cape Cod, sea level rose roughly 3 meters (11 feet) per millennium between 6,000 and 2,000 years ago. After that, it continued to rise at about 1 meter (3 feet) per millennium. By 6,000 years ago, the sea level was high enough to start eroding the glacial deposits that the vanished continental ice sheet had left on Cape Cod. The water then carried the eroded deposits along the shoreline. Those reworked sediments found a new home on the tip of Cape Cod. Provincetown Spit, at the northern end of the cape, consists largely of marine deposits, transported from farther up the shore. So while other parts of the Cape have dwindled from the action of the waves, this part of the Cape has grown.

History

"(Cape Cod is) . . . a vast morgue, where famished dogs may range in packs - the most uninviting landscape on earth." - Thoreau

Cape Cod was a landmark for early explorers, possibly the "Promontory of Vinland" of the Norse voyagers (985-1025). Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524 approached it from the south, and Gomez the next year called it Cape St. James. Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602 gave it the name that survives. Samuel Champlain charted its sand-silted harbors in 1606 and Henry Hudson landed there in 1609. Captain John Smith noted it on his map of 1614 and at last the Pilgrims entered the "Cape Harbor" and landed near Provincetown on November 11, 1620.

Cape Cod was among the first places settled in the North America. Aside from Barnstable and Sandwich (1638) and Yarmouth (1639) the cape's fifteen towns developed slowly. Provincetown was a group of huts until the 18th century. A channel from Massachusetts Bay to Buzzards Bay is shown on Southack's map of 1717, but the present Cape Cod Canal had a troubled development from 1870 to 1914. The Federal government purchased it in 1928.

Thanks to its early settlement and intensive land use, by the time Henry Thoreau saw Cape Cod during his four visits over 1849 to 1857, its vegetation was depauperate and trees were scarce. As all heating was by wood, and it took 10 to 20 cords of wood to heat a home, most of Cape Cod was cleared early on. Other areas were planted to crops familiar to the English but unsuited to Cape Cod's thin, glacially derived soils. For instance, much of Eastham was planted to wheat. Burning of woodlands was common to release nutrients into the soil. Improper and intensive farming led to erosion and the loss of topsoil. Dunes on the outer Cape became more common and many harbors filled in with eroded soils. By 1800, most of Cape Cod's firewood came by boat from Maine. The paucity of vegetation was worsened by the Merino sheep and wool "mania" that reached its peak in New England around 1840. Lacking any significant water power the early industrial revolution, which occurred through much of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, bypassed Cape Cod, as a result of this, along with its geographic position, the cape developed as a large fishing and whaling center. After 1860 and the opening of the west, agricultural abandonment began on the Cape so that by 1950 it had more forests than at any time since the 1700s.

Guglielmo Marconi made the first transatlantic wireless transmission from Cape Cod at Wellfleet. He then built upon this success in 1914 by opening the maritime wireless station WCC in Chatham, which had a hand in the communications of Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes, Admiral Byrd, and the Hindenburg. He chose this site due to Chatham's vantage point on the Atlantic Ocean, surround on three sides by water.

Much of the East-facing Atlantic seacoast of Cape Cod consists of wide, sandy beaches. In 1961, a significant portion of this coastline—already slated for housing subdivisions—was made a part of the Cape Cod National Seashore by President John F. Kennedy, and is thus protected from development. Large portions are open to the public, including the "Marconi Site" in Wellfleet, a park built around the site of the first two-way transoceanic radio transmission (by Theodore Roosevelt using Guglielmo Marconi's equipment). The area near Provincetown enjoys the historical distinction of being the first, exploratory, landing site of the Pilgrims, on their journey from England to Plymouth Rock.

Tourism

Although Cape Cod has a year round population of about 230,000, it experiences a tourist explosion each summer between Memorial Day and Labor Day, as the New England cold gives way to a brief but comfortable summer. Many businesses are specifically targeted to the visitors, and close during the "off season" (roughly 8-9 months per year, although many tourists are opting to visit in the late spring and early fall, effectively extending the tourist season). Some particularly well known Cape products and industries include cranberries, shellfish (particularly oysters and clams) and lobstering.

Provincetown, at the tip of Cape Cod, also berths several whale watching fleets. Most fleets guarantee a whale sighting, and one is the only federally certified operation qualified to rescue whales. Most motels in and around Cape Cod provide coupons that offer discounts on the whale watching trips. Provincetown has also traditionally been a popular gay and lesbian resort, attracting gay and lesbian tourists to the various shows, shops, and events held there.

Cape Cod is also very popular for its boating, seafood, ice cream, candy, miniature golf, go-karts, and unique shopping. Bed and breakfasts or vacation houses are often used for lodging.

Islands off Cape Cod

Like Cape Cod itself, the islands south of Cape Cod have turned from being whaling and trading areas to resort destinations for the Northeast, attracting old, wealthy families, celebrities, and prosperous tourists alike. The islands include Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, as well as the Elizabeth Island chain, which includes the Forbes family-owned Naushon Island, which was purchased by John Murray Forbes with profits from opium dealing in the China trade during the Opium War. Several prominent families have established compounds or estates on the larger islands, making these Cape Cod offshore islands some of the wealthiest resorts in the Northeast, yet they retain much of the early merchant trading and whaling culture.

External links

References

Cape Cod | Cap Cod | Cape Cod | Cape Cod | Cape Cod