History of Cape Cod Massachusetts
Cape Cod Massachusetts is very well known for its natural and untouched beauty
and is said to be a highly favored vacation spot for tourists and artists. It
is hard to believe that the peninsula we know as Cape Cod is only around 18,000
years old in geologic time. For centuries, tourists, artists, fishermen, pilgrims
and explorers of all sorts have turned to Cape Cod and its surrounding waters
to fulfill all their needs and ambitions. Even still, it is a rather small town
that has a rather remarkable amount of history behind it. Cape Cod Massachusetts
was first named by Bartholomew Gosnold in the year 1602 when he sailed from
Falmouth, England to investigate the great American coast for trade opportunities
.He chose to name Cape Cod for the vast quantities of cod that his crew managed
to catch. Although there is no written proof, it is also believed that Vikings
such as the Viking explorer Thorvold may have visited this land that we know
as Cape Cod somewhere around the year 1004, but it is most likely that European
exploration of Cape Cod did not begin until the year 1602.
Pilgrims are known to have first landed at Cape Cods beautiful sandy shores
on November 11th 1620 during their voyage to find freedom from the Church of
England and for economic opportunity. When the pilgrims reached Cape Cods sandy
shores this was their first look at the new world .Whenever the pilgrims landed
at Cape Cod they thought that Cape Cod was too sandy and that perhaps its sandy
shores would not be able to hold them. They did however stay long enough to
find out that there was drinkable water and edible food for them to have. Cape
Cod Massachusetts is also where the pilgrims are known to have had their first
fight with the Natives. Some of the pilgrims that landed at Cape Cod were John
Carver , Edward Winslow, John Tilly, Edward Doty , and Tomas English just to
name a few.
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In the year1785, over one thousand years later, the Massachusetts humane society
started the world’s first life saving service. They started in Boston
Harbor where they soon set up with many shelters and food for shipwrecked survivors.
Eventually, the Massachusetts Humane Society established a few outposts on the
shores of Cape Cod in the early years of the 1800s. These outposts were run
strictly by volunteers so there was not always someone there to keep a look
out for shipwreck survivors. In the year of 1872, congress started and staffed
the first federally funded life saving stations. They became known as the U.S.
Life Saving Service. There were nine of U.S. life saving stations located on
the shores of Cape Cod in the 1870s. These U.S. life saving stations were known
as Race Point, Pamet, Highlands, Cahoons Hollow , Peaked Hill Bars, Monomoy
Point, Nauset, Orleans, and Chatham .(not in order of position on shoreline)
Over the next twenty years or so settlers spread themselves north and south
of Plymouth. The very first parts of the sandy shores of Cape Cod that were
known to be settled were the bay-side sections of Barnstable, Sandwich, and
also Yarmouth. All of these were merged together in the year of 1639 alongside
a great historical Indian trail that is now referred to as Route 6A.These settlers
fished, hunted and built their houses out of the salt hay from the marshes to
which they also used to feed their livestock.
Cape cod has many interesting historical attractions such as the Cape Cod Canal
which stretches as far as the eye can see, was linked in the year 1914 to the
two bays one being Cape Cod bay in the north and the other being Buzzards Bay
in the south, the ever loved Falmouth playhouse built in the year 1928, and
the well known Barnstable Comedy Club built in the year 1922.
Despite all of these wonderful attractions and development, Cape Cod Massachusetts
has remained just as beautiful as ever. In fact, many of the occupations from
the earliest dwellers have not vanished as you would think. There continues
to be more than one hundred (100) farms still left in Cape Cod, and the fishing
industry is very prosperous!
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