Latest Stories

DERELICT

WELLFLEET — The owner of a sprawling house at 177 Peace Valley Road that has been abandoned for years and condemned since 2018 has been given a final chance to […]

REAL ESTATE

EASTHAM — Brewster businessman Gary Vecchione recently set up a social media page called Collins Cove Cottage Condos, where he announced that he plans to purchase the seven houses built […]

UNBANKED

PROVINCETOWN — A yearslong effort to build a visitor center for the Gerry E. Studds Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary ended in October when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration […]

BUCK TAG

ORLEANS — In the long, flat twilight of a December afternoon, two pickup trucks rolled up to the rear entrance of the Goose Hummock Shop in Orleans a few minutes […]

‘NAUSET NEWS’

EASTHAM — English dept. head Selena King is teaching herself Final Cut Pro, the video editing program used to create Nauset News, Nauset Regional High School’s student-produced weekly news program. […]

RABBIT HOLES

WELLFLEET — For decades, the New England cottontail, a rare species of rabbit, appeared to be nearly wiped out here. But a new study has found evidence that these rabbits […]

COOKIE SWAP

The Joe Frogger deserves wider recognition, full stop. It’s a historical American cookie made with pantry staples and features a molasses base spiced with cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom. It’s firm […]

MEET THE MAKERS

The holiday markets here celebrate a long history of handicrafts made on the Outer Cape. Where there were once bayberry candle makers, rug hookers, net weavers, beach plum canners, and […]

MILLION-YEAR PICNIC

If there is one constellation that most people can identify, it’s Orion — the hunter. He strides boldly across the night sky, a club in one hand, a shield in […]

D.I.Y.

It’s the season for stoking woodstoves and laying in firewood. But those are arts that, up to now, I’ve only been the beneficiary of. I like sitting by a glowing […]

ON THE LANDSCAPE

I was on my daily pilgrimage to the ocean, driving north along the bluff above the water in Wellfleet. It was the dimming end of a silver-skied November day, and […]

NOT A FOLLY

The Outer Cape is the last stop on the train for Ilex opaca, the American holly, a southern tree whose range snakes up the mid-Atlantic and New England coasts before […]

LOVE, ACTUALLY

PROVINCETOWN — Nicholas Busa and Olushola Reis were married outdoors at the Provincetown Visitors Center in the Cape Cod National Seashore on the afternoon of Nov. 27, 2024. “I didn’t […]

WARRIORS WATCH

EASTHAM — The Nauset Regional High School girls basketball team is working on rebounding, with Coach Jean Leyton advising from just under the backstop. While the players know it’s important […]

PARTY DRESS

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RARA AVIS

Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, Dec. 10 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]

ASTRAL PROJECTIONS

This week will come with its challenges, especially in the realm of interpersonal conflicts. But we’ll find there are some opportunities, too — if we can just see through their […]

PROVINCETOWN: THIS WEEK'S CURRENTS

Meetings Ahead Most meetings in Provincetown are held in person, typically with an online-attendance option. Click on the meeting you want to attend on the calendar at provincetown-ma.gov for a […]

TRURO: THIS WEEK'S CURRENTS

Meetings Ahead  Meetings in Truro are often held remotely, and live meetings usually have an online-attendance option. Go to Truro-ma.gov and click on the meeting you are interested in for an agenda […]

WELLFLEET: THIS WEEK'S CURRENTS

Meetings Ahead Most meetings in Wellfleet are in person, typically with an online-attendance option. Click on the meeting you are interested in on the calendar at wellfleet-ma.gov for details. All […]

EASTHAM: THIS WEEK'S CURRENTS

Meetings Ahead Most meetings in Eastham are in person, typically with an online-attendance option. Click on the meeting you are interested in on the calendar at eastham-ma.gov for details. All […]

AN ARTIST’S LEGACY

Sculptor Breon Dunigan, sitting at her kitchen table in Truro, remembers the Christmastime haircuts well. She and her siblings and cousins — the six granddaughters of Provincetown artist Barbara Haven […]

CONNECTIONS

An exhibition currently on view in Orleans combines works from two galleries: Orleans Modern Art and Garvey Rita Art & Antiques. Titled “Side by Side,” the show draws aesthetic connections […]

’TIS THE SEASON

Inside his studio gallery tucked into Provincetown’s Whalers Wharf, artist Gaston Lacombe is embellishing a tree. Not a Christmas tree, but a tree painted on a large panel in bright […]

ART

Forty years ago, artist Karen LaFleur realized that she could make designs using a dot matrix printer. She painstakingly typed alternating Xs, Os, symbols, and blank spaces on her computer […]

MEMOIR

In My Time of Dying is like Schrödinger’s cat. Until you open the book, author Sebastian Junger is both alive and dead. But in the famous quantum theory thought experiment, […]

MEMOIR

My mother was from Las Vegas. On one summer visit when I was 12, she took me to Ceasars Palace to see Cher in concert. During the encore, Cher ran […]

Catie Flynn Does What She Loves Catie Flynn makes her living “the Cape Cod way” — that is, she says, doing “whatever works.” Originally from Harwich, she now lives in […]

VIGNETTE

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STEAMERS

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OP-ED

I have gotten a dose of much-needed inspiration from what just happened in South Korea. In case you missed it, the political opposition there joined with members of President Yoon […]

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Nuclear power appears to be making a comeback. After years of decline in the number of operating U.S. reactors, there are signs that new ones may be on the way. […]

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Big Yellow Cadillac To the editor: Thanks to Tom Recchio for another insightful obituary of a storied Provincetown resident, Alice Brock [“Artist and Cook Alice Brock, Made Famous by […]

OBITUARY

Cynthia Louise Doherty died at her Eastham home on Nov. 26, 2024 after a long struggle with heart disease. She was 74. The oldest of four children, Cindy was born […]

OBITUARY

Elizabeth Dater Jennings, who was one of the first women to work as a media analyst on Wall Street, died on Nov. 27, 2024 at Yale New Haven Hospital in […]

OBITUARY

Gail D. Nickerson died at her home in Buena Vista, Va. on Oct. 19, 2024. The cause was complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She was 75. The daughter of […]

TIDE CHART

Know when to hit the flats.   This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.

Real Estate Transactions Recorded at the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds from Dec. 2 to Dec. 6, 2024.  PROVINCETOWN Dec. 2. Michael S. Lynch and Ross A. Dube to Charles […]

CLASSIFIEDS

EVENTS  Crone’s Team Trivia is back at Bay Cafe every Tuesday at 7 p.m. throughout the winter. Prizes, fun, food and drinks. All welcome. Join us at 177 Commercial St., […]

Happy Days (Thursday, Dec. 12) The “Days of Yore” holiday event at Eastham Public Library (190 Samoset Road) on Thursday, Dec. 12, 4 p.m. features music by the Nauset Ringers […]

Town of Provincetown New Sewer Design-Build-Operate (DBO) Contract The Town of Provincetown (Awarding Authority), acting through the Department of Public Works (DPW), is seeking technical and price proposals for the […]

ON POINTE

The bunheads took the elevator in shifts, one giggling gaggle at a time, bound for the second-floor auditorium of Provincetown Town Hall. It was Saturday, Nov. 16, and the HeartStrings […]

DOWNTOWN

PROVINCETOWN — If an autumn evening spent in a meeting room with the select board, planning board, affordable housing council, and Year-Round Market-Rate Rental Housing Trust doesn’t sound like a […]

EARTH KEEPERS

ORLEANS — A pair of place-based education classes at Nauset Regional Middle School aim to help students gain a deeper understanding of their home by putting Indigenous knowledge at the […]

RADIOACTIVITY

PLYMOUTH — Inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have found apparent violations in the security measures being used to protect the spent fuel storage area on the grounds of […]

TRURO HOUSING

This article was updated on Dec. 10, 2024. TRURO — Political roadblocks, infrastructure challenges, and bureaucratic delays have kept the 69.9-acre Walsh property in a kind of limbo since Truro’s […]

PUBLIC HEALTH

EASTHAM — A dead raccoon that turned up on Smith Lane with a face full of porcupine quills on Nov. 17 tested positive for raccoon variant rabies — a variant […]

IN THE DEEP

CHATHAM — Strange things have been happening in recent years in the Gulf of Maine, the 36,000 square miles of relatively enclosed ocean stretching from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia. […]

MEET THE MAKERS

WELLFLEET — In the sunlit back room of a Bank Street shop are workbenches scattered with loops and lengths of metal and wire; heavy metalworking equipment sits in the corner; […]

FAMILY RECIPES

First a little history. When the Moors invaded Spain in the Eighth Century, they introduced rice and saffron into the Spanish culinary oeuvre. Delicious, savory paella and sweet arroz con […]

GRAVEYARD SHIFT

Many might remember the anxious feeling of being urged by a well-intentioned parent to perform for relatives at a family gathering. For Martha Atwood of Wellfleet, the family gathering was […]

THE SCUTTLEBUTT

As we wrap up the year, there’s some recent news: the early arrival on Nov. 18 of two North Atlantic right whales. Scientists from the Center for Coastal Studies were […]

MORNING FLIGHT

Winter is not easy if you’re a bird. The abundant food supply you relied on all summer is gone, you use a lot of energy keeping warm, and without leaves […]

GAMBITS

EASTHAM — Few onlookers were surprised when Joey Smith and Lucas Wilson-Bevington sat down across from each other at a table in Nauset Regional High School’s new cafeteria for the […]

BULLY FOR YOU

There are three species of cattail that one might find around these parts — a meatier one that’s well behaved and local, a slim one from Eurasia and northern Africa that […]

RARA AVIS

Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, Dec. 3 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]

ASTRAL PROJECTIONS

The transits indicate things are going to be challenging for the next few days, so the best thing to do is cultivate a can-do attitude as you work through the […]

PROVINCETOWN: THIS WEEK'S CURRENTS

Meetings Ahead Most meetings in Provincetown are held in person, typically with an online attendance option. Click on the meeting you want to attend on the calendar at provincetown-ma.gov for […]

TRURO: THIS WEEK'S CURRENTS

Meetings Ahead  Meetings in Truro are often held remotely. Go to Truro-ma.gov and click on the meeting you are interested in for an agenda and details on how to join.  Thursday, Dec. […]

WELLFLEET: THIS WEEK'S CURRENTS

Meetings Ahead  Most meetings in Wellfleet are held online and in person. Go to www.wellfleet-ma.gov/calendar and click on the meeting you want to watch, then follow the instructions on the […]

EASTHAM: THIS WEEK'S CURRENTS

Meetings Ahead Most meetings in Eastham are in-person, typically with an online attendance option. Click on the meeting you are interested in on the calendar at eastham-ma.gov for details. All […]

ICONOGRAPHY

The wharf in all its stages — from bustling workplace to burnt timbers — has seen generations of artists setting up easels to capture the arrival and departure of schooners […]

STARTING OVER

Sasha Chavchavadze approaches her family history with some ambivalence. At times she tries to stash it away. “All this heavy Russian history becomes too big,” she says. Still, she often […]

BOOKS

Queer baby boomers are now elders, the first generation to grow old after Stonewall. They came of age in a world where it was possible to love openly, keep one’s […]

Bringing the Bells and Singing for Change For 28 years, Reuben Reynolds has been the music director of the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus, standing in front of its hundreds of […]

VIGNETTE

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STEAMERS

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KEEPING WATCH

My old friend and colleague Marty at Blair Academy in New Jersey wrote the other day, saying, “Hope I can outlive this mess” and asking how I’m faring. I wrote […]

THE YEAR-ROUNDER

If MacMillan Wharf is the heart of Provincetown, then surely Lopes Square is its aorta, where thousands of visitors surge, pulse, and begin their journey into town. After their stays, […]

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

When the big-city press publishes a story about weekly newspapers these days, it’s usually focused on how they’re losing readers and going out of business. But last Sunday’s New York […]

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Managing the Marina To the editor: The appointment of Michael Cavanaugh is hopeful news and progress toward guiding the Wellfleet harbormaster office to a model of competency and trust [Currents: […]

OBITUARY

Kenneth William Lonergan, who was Provincetown’s town crier from 2007 to 2020, greeting visitors as they disembarked from ferries with his signature “All is well in Provincetown because you are […]

OBITUARY

Elizabeth Kotsrean Richards died on Nov. 11, 2024 at Noble Horizons Retirement Community in Salisbury, Conn., surrounded by her family. She was 93. Born on June 4, 1931 in St. […]

OBITUARY

Girard Fitzgerald Smith, who was both a devoted father, grandfather, and great-grandfather and a much-honored Truro resident, died on Nov. 19, 2024 at Cape Cod Hospital. He was 94. Girard […]

OBITUARY

Margaret Anne Beaudry died on Nov. 15, 2024 at her home in Eastham surrounded by family and friends and by prayers from those who could not be by her side. […]

TIDE CHART

Know when to hit the flats.   This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.

Recorded at th­­e Barnstable C­ounty Registry of Deeds from Nov. 25 to Nov. 29, 2024.  PROVINCETOWN Nov. 25. 28-32 Standish Street LLC [Lyn Plummer, agent] to Andrew Scott Moren. 32 […]

CLASSIFIEDS

SERVICES  Have a Zoomer on your holiday shopping list? Read “How Vintage Coach Bags Became Gen-Z’s Must-Have Accessory of 2024” in British Vogue, then find vintage Coach at my shop, […]

Wrapper’s Delight (Thursday, Dec. 5) Cape Cod Museum of Art (60 Hope Lane, Dennis) celebrates “Wrap It Up!,” the fourth annual Members’ Small Works holiday show and sale, with a […]

Town of Wellfleet Historical Commission Public Hearing December 11, 2024 Notice is hereby filed that the Wellfleet Historical Commission will hold a remote Public Hearing on WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2024, […]

Town of Provincetown New Sewer Design-Build-Operate (DBO) Contract The Town of Provincetown (Awarding Authority), acting through the Department of Public Works (DPW), is seeking technical and price proposals for the […]

WAMPANOAG RECLAMATION

MASHPEE — Nitana Greendeer of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe knows that children are the key to preserving the Wôpanâak language. “When you haven’t got 20, 30, 40 years of English […]

HEALTH CARE

WELLFLEET — As the Dec. 7 deadline to change Medicare Advantage plans approaches, over 500 patients of Outer Cape Health Services (OCHS) must decide whether to choose a new plan […]

SECURITY ONLINE

PROVINCETOWN — A cyberattack on the Provincetown IB Schools triggered a shutdown of the schools’ network from Oct. 17 to 28. The network, servers, and Windows computers were affected by […]

GOING IN CIRCLES

TRURO — Construction of a new Dept. of Public Works facility, which town officials had hoped to complete by 2027, appears unlikely to meet that deadline. The project is mired […]

HOUSING AT MAURICE’S

WELLFLEET — Some 100 residents turned out for the Nov. 20 “visioning session” on the future of what is now Maurice’s Campground. The crowd was considerably larger than planners at […]

LOCAL NEWS

WOODS HOLE — Staff at WCAI, the Cape and Islands public radio station, learned on Oct. 25 that the station’s parent organization, GBH, had made plans to sell the house […]

RECREATION

ORLEANS — A planned $32-million overhaul of recreation facilities and playing fields at Eldredge Park and on the grounds of the Nauset Regional Middle School and Orleans Elementary School has […]

TURKEY

WELLFLEET — Another season has started for the 246 Community Kitchen, a nonprofit in town that dishes out weekly free meals all winter long. Not much has changed, says the […]

SPECIAL DELIVERY

TRURO — Ten people chat and chop with oldies blasting from a hidden speaker in the basement kitchen of the Christian Union Church. It’s the Monday morning before Thanksgiving, and […]

SOUP’S ON

PROVINCETOWN — On a cold Monday, 200 or so guests gathered at the United Methodist Church for lunch at the Soup Kitchen in Provincetown, or SKIP. Some had been in […]

ESSENTIALS

EASTHAM — The food pantry in Eastham has been around for 44 years — longer than any other on the Outer Cape, said Joan Lockhart, who manages it. Nestled behind […]

TO THE MAT

For some people, the gatherings and celebrations of the winter holidays might be a welcome relief after an anxious election season. But for most, the winter holidays aren’t necessarily an […]

THE DAY AFTER

We ate a lot of convenience foods when I was a kid growing up in the 1970s. There were dinners of Hamburger Helper and Chun King chop suey, but the […]

CYMRU DISPATCH

The way markers were all odd, deceiving us, leading us astray, bending our perception of reality. It seemed like we’d entered a parallel universe. By the time the bulls charged […]

THE SCUTTLEBUTT

Greetings from sunny, warm Tortola — a place my mate and I love so much we visit twice a year. I often write about the challenges fishermen face in our […]

ON THE BEACH

On a recent mid-November afternoon, I was the only person on the pond aside from a paddleboarder barely visible in the distance. A week after election day, it was sunny […]

ROOTING AROUND

EASTHAM — Caroline DeBrota and Shawyoun Shaidani’s road to the Turnip Festival began in 2023, when the Medford pair decided to dress up as fish and chips for Halloween. They […]

ISN’T IT GOOD?

If your Acer turns a dull yellow in the fall, it’s probably not a native tree; while the sugar maple can hit that end of the spectrum, it does so […]

RARA AVIS

Highlights from bird sightings on the Outer Cape over a little less than the usual one-week period. The Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary tally for us ended a day […]