Editing Truro, Massachusetts (section)

== History ==
[[Image:Truro - Cape Cod Light 1d crop.jpg|thumb|left|[[Highland Light]]. The original site is marked by a boulder in the foreground.]]
Cape Cod was the territory of successive cultures of [[indigenous peoples]] for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. At the time of English colonization, the Wampanoag tribe was the dominant one on Cape Cod, numbering about 7,000 by early accounts. They used the cape and its waters for hunting, fishing and gathering shellfish. They also cultivated [[maize]] to supplement their diets and to store for winter eating.

The English [[Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)|Pilgrims]] stopped in Truro and [[Provincetown]] in 1620 as their original choice for a landing before later deciding the area to be unsuitable. While there, they discovered fresh water and corn stored by the Wampanoag. Historians debate the accuracy of the account about the latter discovery, but in popular lore it led to the place being called Corn Hill.

Truro was settled by English immigrant [[colonists]] in the 1690s as the northernmost portion of the town of [[Eastham, Massachusetts|Eastham]]. The town was officially separated and incorporated in 1709. Fishing, [[whaling]] and [[shipbuilding]] made up the town's early industry. These industries had to shift to other locations as the harsh tides of the Lower Cape reduced the town's main port in the 1850s. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Cape Cod was a popular location for artists because of its light.

Today, Truro is one of the more exclusive towns on the Cape, noted for its affluent residences and the rolling hills and dunes along the coast. Truro is the site of the [[Highland Light]] (also known as the Cape Cod Light), the earliest lighthouse on Cape Cod. The first building was erected in 1797; the current lighthouse was built in 1857. The entire 430-ton light was moved about {{frac|1|10}} of a mile inland in 1996. By then, because of erosion, its original site was just ten yards from the edge of the shore cliffs.<ref>
{{cite book
| title = Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Street Atlas
| publisher = Arrow Maps Inc.
| year=  2004
| pages = 86
}}</ref>

The old town cemetery was the location of the murders in 1969 of Susan Perry, Patricia Walsh, Sydney Monzon and Mary Anna Wysocki by [[Tony Costa]].<ref name="murder">Albright, EJ. [http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index.php/2007/09/11/the_tony_costa_cape_cod_murders?blog=149 "The Tony Costa Cape Cod murders"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721094654/http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index.php/2007/09/11/the_tony_costa_cape_cod_murders?blog=149 |date=July 21, 2011 }}, ''Cape Cod Confidential''. CapeCodToday.com November 9, 2007.</ref>