Author Archives: pamticeblog@gmail.com

I recently opened Henry David Thoreau’s Cape Cod to check on a quote for another post, and started re-reading. To my surprise, I found that I was understanding this classic in a whole new way. Now that I’ve worked my … Continue reading →

The Cape Codder in May of 1959 had a small note on the death of Albert Stone, Jr. who had a “summer camp” in the woods of South Wellfleet, near the ocean. The reporter noted that only three people from … Continue reading →

Hard to believe, but there was a time when pizza was not such a mainstay of the American diet. Introduced to the culture after World War II by returning American servicemen, it took a while for word to spread. By … Continue reading →

The bottom of the sea is strewn with anchors, some deeper and some shallower, and alternately covered and uncovered by the sand, perchance with a small link of cable still attached, — to which where is the other end? Henry … Continue reading →

The Cape’s whaling heritage is more visible this summer (2014) with visits to various Cape harbors by the refurbished 1841 whaling ship Charles F. Morgan, the last square-rigged wooden whaling ship — a restoration project of the Mystic Seaport Museum. … Continue reading →

The Massachusetts Historical Society began publishing papers in their collection in the late 1700s. One of the earliest writers about Wellfleet, quoted often, is the town’s minister, Levi Whitman. In 1794 he wrote a letter called “An Account of the … Continue reading →

Free food! The first Billingsgate settlers joined the other English farmers who found the salt marshes up and down the North Atlantic coast as a certain source of fodder for their livestock. Harvesting salt hay was not new – it … Continue reading →

Land Distribution in South Wellfleet Since I began researching the history of South Wellfleet, I’ve looked for evidence of the earliest European settlers — and evidence of native people populating the area, yet another topic. This article discusses the records … Continue reading →

We require great imagination to take us from the 21st century back to the 17th in South Wellfleet. Historians call the time frame of 1620-1692 the “Plantation Period”. This followed the “Contact Period,” pre-1620, when there were European explorers and … Continue reading →

In 1957, two Wellfleet citizens, Charles Zehnder and John M. Jentz, purchased about 26 acres of land in South Wellfleet just across the Eastham border, and formed the Spring Brook Center, a company that operated the Wellfleet Drive-In theater. There’s … Continue reading →