Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket: An Explorer's Guide, Ninth Edition (Explorer's Guides)

by Kim Grant
  Kim Grant, a 25-year veteran travel writer, has combed the Cape and islands yet again to research the ninth edition of this perennially popular guide. She provides readers with the best of the best: selective, up-to-date recommendations for lodgings of every stripe; hundreds of dining reviews covering everything from clam shacks to four-star restaurants; daylong itineraries for every pursuit; and much more. Follow Grant’s lead to find nature preserves, bike trails, beaches, lighthouses, antiques shops, local artisans, summer theatre, and nightlife - whatever your taste, budget, time frame, or interest, she never steers you wrong.
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In 1602, the English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold and his crew landed on the island of Cuttyhunk (a corruption of the native American Poocutohhunk-konnoh) which was intially re-named Elizabeth Island - later extended to the group, the Elizabeth Islands. According to Cuttyhunk and the Elizabeth Islands: 'Gosnold's encampment on an island in Cuttyhunk's West End Pond was the first attempt at a permanent settlement in North America. While this fort was occupied only for a few weeks, journals kept by Gabriel Archer (a lawyer) and John Brereton (a cleric), who traveled with him, give a fine record of what they saw during that voyage. Brereton writes of one meeting this way:'

'These people, as they are exceeding courteous, gentle of disposition and well-conditioned, excelling all others that we have scene; so for shape of body and lovely favour, I think they excell all the people of America; of stature much higher than we; of complexion or colour much like a dark Olive; their eybrowes and haire blacke, which they wear long, tied up behind in knots, whereon they pricke feathers of fowles in a fashion of a crownet [coronet].'

'These journals picture a newly discovered world, rich in resources of wildlife and timber and inhabited by a handsome people who lived in peace with their surroundings.'

To this day, many of the placenames in the Cape Cod area are of Cornish or West Country derivation (in the US they are all regarded as English - no matter that the Cornish are Celts). But the Elizabeth Islands mainly retain names of native American origin, although none seemed to have had permanent indigenous communities, being used for summer campsites.

The History of Martha's Vineyard, Volume II, by Dr. Charles E. Banks (1911) states that:

'The chain of a dozen islands, large and small, running westward from the mainland of Cape Cod at Woods Hole, between Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound, constitute the Elizabeth Islands, known now as the town of Gosnold, an integral part of the County of Dukes County. These islands, varying in size from a few acres to several thousand, now bear the following names, beginning at Woods Hole and going westward in sequence: Nonamesset, Uncatena, Monohansett, Naushon, Weepecket, Pasque, Nashawena, Penekese, Gull, and Cuttyhunk.'

Most of the islands are privately owned by the Forbes family and only Cuttyhunk 'welcomes' visitors - in a very controlled fashion. Nevertheless its population swells from around 35 to 400 in the summer season.

More New England articles:

New England Cooking

Maine Islands - an Island a Day

Nantucket Island

Martha's Vineyard

Block Island

Books about Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and the Elizabeth Islands

The Enduring Shore: A History of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket

by Paul Schneider
  Cape Cod's Great Beach, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket are romantic stops on Schneider's roughly chronological human and natural history. His book is a lucid and compelling collage of seaside ecology, Indians and colonists, religion and revolution, shipwrecks and hurricanes, whalers and vengeful sperm whales, glorious clipper ships and today's beautiful but threatened beaches. Schneider's superb eye for story and detail illuminates both history and landscape. A wonderful introduction, it will also appeal to the millions of people who already have warm associations with these magical places
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