We found lovely fall color as we drove eastward toward the Cape across Connecticut and Rhode Island. In the little groves and valleys between the endless towns and cities were pockets of nature living as reminders of the richness of this area as it might have been before we began settling and changing it all.
Our destination was the Cape Cod Canal area where the Army Corp of Engineers (our other favorite corps!) has a campground at Scusset Beach State Reservation. The Canal is a main water thoroughfare between Cape Cod Bay and Buzzards Bay utilized by every type of vessel imaginable. It was built as a way to save hundreds of miles and days of time by eliminating the need to navigate clear around the Cape to ports in southern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Due to the lateness of the season, many of the venues were closed and we decided to move on to the Sandwich area and the Shawme-Crowell State Forest CG. We took a few excursions into Sandwich (incorporated in 1637 and the oldest town on Cape Cod) to photograph the architecture and discovered the Sandwich Glass Museum. What a delight of history, industry and beauty! Begun in 1825 by Deming Jarves because he felt he could make glassware more cheaply than what he was importing from England. Because there were large forests of pitch pine for the furnaces and fine silica sand from the Berkshire Mountains, plus good bays and ocean access for exporting to Europe, he poured his entire $25,000 inheritance into the building of his large factory. Farsightedness, great business sense and hard work allowed this glass company to continue to operate well into the twentieth century. As you can see we had a ball photographing some of the hundreds and hundreds of items on display.
I must admit I found Cape Cod to be so different from what I had imagined that I actually was somewhat disappointed. Oh sure, the Cape Cod cottages were here and there and some of the federalist and colonial homes were beautiful but I wanted the miles of sand beaches and offshore islands, rugged, granite cliffs and acres of windblown berry bushes, cut by creeks and fast flowing streams. I wanted to stand on the Atlantic shoreline, braced against the wind watching whitecaps break against the boulders. Wait! This was Cape Cod, not Maine! This was now and not 50 or 60 years ago, as described by an acquaintance of ours, Dana Eldridge. He grew up in Chatham on the southeast side of the Cape and wrote a delightful book of his childhood and the world I was hoping still existed. Oh well, “… the best laid plans…” What we found were busy highways lined by gnarled pines and squeezed by town after town, some quite delightful but too many people and ‘cute’ businesses.
The Cape Cod National Seashore is a blessing of thousands of acres of natural shoreline and beaches untouched by new development and still preserving some of the remnants of the past: whaling, lighthouses, life- saving stations. We stopped at as many as we could that were still open or accessible.
Salt Pond Visitors Center had a lovely view of something they call a ‘kettle’ pond. These were formed by retreating glaciers about 12,000 years ago. As the ice melted, it left large blocks of ice isolated on the debris fields. The weight of these blocks crushed the soil and left huge depressions. Gradually they filled with fresh water and have supported small microclimates and ecosystems over the ages. Salt pond is rare because it is filled with salt water received through an eroded channel from the shore. Its water level rises and recedes with the tides far out in the bay. We would have stayed longer at the visitor’s center but they were closing and a storm was coming in.
Next we stopped at Nauset Light and the Three Sister lighthouses out on Cable Road. Nauset Light was first built as three brick towers in 1838 but when erosion claimed them in 1892, they were replaced by three wooden towers called the Three Sisters. Sailors claimed that from the sea they looked like three ladies in white dresses wearing black bonnets. Two of the towers were sold in 1911 to become a summer cottage and the third was replaced in 1923 by the current Nauset Light.The Sisters are now located about ¼ miles back from the shore front erosion to protect them. We then traveled upshore and photographed Highland Lighthouse.
Highland Lighthouse
Nauset Light
One of the Three Sisters 
Cable Road is named to commemorate the American terminus of the 3,000 mile Atlantic communications cable that connected the US with Europe in the late 1800’s. All that remains of the system now is a small, unnoticed shack at the edge of the parking lot. This huge cable system was replaced in 1902 by the amazing technology of radio waves and the establishment of a transmission station by Giuseppe Marconi. It was from this radio station that the first transatlantic message between the US and England was transmitted in 1903. The massive towers and wires are now gone due to the eroding shoreline but the idea and the industry it spawned are still very much present in our daily lives.
The winds were really beginning to whip the sand and waves around so we decided to head straight for Provincetown to see what we might find. We were just in time for the last Pilgrims Monument tour. The monument commemorates the “first landing” of the Mayflower Pilgrims in Provincetown on November 21, 1620. President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone on August 20, 1907 with President Howard Taft completing the dedication ceremony on August 5, 1910. All of the blocks of stone came from Stonington, Maine. It is the tallest all granite structure in the United States. It was quite a hike up its 116 steps and 60 ramps but from its 252 foot, 7.5 inch height one is afforded a panoramic 360 degree view of Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod Bay, Provincetown and Long Point Light, as well as the National Seashore.
Again the wind just prevented us from really doing much in terms of driving and walking around Provincetown so we pretty much decided to head back down Highway 6 to Nickerson State Park and a cozy dinner only to be stuck in the traffic coming from the annual Oyster Fry at Truro. We couldn’t go for the oysters because the fry was over and, for various reasons, we also couldn’t connect with our friends, the Eldridges. So you can see that there were a number of things that made our Cape Cod caper a little less than perfect. The next day we were off across Rhode Island to the center of Connecticut and then on to Carmel, NYon our way to Philadelphia.
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