PROVINCETOWN — It was a dark Thursday afternoon with a squall moving in, the kind of conditions that might set the stage for the dramatic rescue of shipwrecked mariners but […]
History
MONUMENTS
Inside the Quest for a Provincetown Fishermen’s Memorial
After nearly 50 years, a new committee hopes that a sculpture’s time has come
PROVINCETOWN — It has been nearly 50 years since the select board approved the idea of a memorial statue dedicated to local fishermen lost at sea. It’s a monument that […]
ERRATICS
Go Ahead, Climb the Rock That Holds a Place in Eastham’s Heart
‘No Climbing’ sign at Doane Rock will be removed by Park Service
EASTHAM — For at least the last couple of hundred years, the boulder near Coast Guard Beach known as Doane Rock has been a popular spot for rock climbers and […]
OBJECT LESSONS
Mind the Raincatcher
Beneath a door at the Wellfleet Historical Society and Museum, an ingenious sill kept wind-driven water at bay
Curious objects that tell stories of the past fill the displays at the Wellfleet Historical Society and Museum. More are stacked in boxes in the basement awaiting the completion of […]
ON THE MARSH
Of Settlers and Silt
How the invasive earthworm came to shape the Outer Cape’s landscape
The measured opening of the 115-year-old Herring River dike is front and center in a decades-long restoration project aimed at bringing back some of the Wellfleet estuary’s original tidal flow. […]
IMMATÉRIEL
Marconi Beach Was a Shooting Range; Now It’s Just a FUDS
The Army Corps plans a final cleanup at Camp Wellfleet
WELLFLEET — Above Marconi Beach, passersby may come across a strange concrete object nudged into the umber dunes, entirely out of place against its pristine natural backdrop. Every morning at […]
SEAFARING FREEDOM
In Whaling, Blacks Had Power, at Least When at Sea
Stevenson and Shorey, who sailed out of Provincetown, became whaling captains
PROVINCETOWN — Whaling was a difficult and dangerous way to make a living and generally not a very profitable one for members of the crews, who had to face typhoons […]
SEAFARING FREEDOM
In Whaling, Blacks Had Power, at Least When at Sea
Stevenson and Shorey, who sailed out of Provincetown, became whaling captains
PROVINCETOWN — Whaling was a difficult and dangerous way to make a living and generally not a very profitable one for members of the crews, who had to face typhoons […]
OBJECT LESSONS
A Faking Box Full of Seafaring History
The tool that toed the line for rescues
Some objects at the Eastham Historical Society’s Schoolhouse Museum are oddly familiar — antique versions of things we use now. Others, like the faking box, are illegible to contemporary eyes, […]
ICONS
Remembering the Willow on West Main Street
A tree that ‘was bigger than all of us’ was lost in the December storm
WELLFLEET — The weeping willow on the corner of West Main Street, which rose above adjacent white clapboard houses, dangled its green catkins over the road’s sharp turn, and endured […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Here’s Looking at You
“Yesterday,” sang the young Paul McCartney, “all my troubles seemed so far away.” According to most sources, the Beatles’ song is the most covered in history, with more than 2,000 […]
1961
The Province Lands’ Narrow Escape
Beech Forest, Herring Cove, and the West End Moors were slated for development
The leasing contest for eight dune shacks in the Cape Cod National Seashore — and the National Park Service’s eviction of Sal Del Deo, 95, and Janet Armstrong, 71, from […]
1927
Provincetown Never Forgets the S-4
When the town became the center of the world
“The news ran like fire through the town. The sinking of the S-4 blotted out all other interests. There was no one who could think of anything else. It was […]
1620
From ‘Of Patuxet’
From a hilltop overlooking the harbor the open ocean stretched across the horizon beyond two long arms of land reaching out, grabbing the sound from opposite directions. The north arm […]
1859
The Butcher of Eastham
Gustavus Swift, meat magnate
On Route 6 in Eastham, across the road from Buddha Bob’s, sits a plain shingle-sided house. It’s a classic Cape house in many respects: its door faces east, it has […]
