Editing Cape Cod (section)

== History ==

=== Wampanoag peoples ===
Cape Cod has been the home of the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous]] [[Wampanoag]] for centuries prior to [[European colonization of the Americas|European colonization]]. They lived from the sea and were accomplished farmers. They understood the principles of [[sustainable forest management]],{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} and were known to light [[Controlled burn|controlled fires]] to keep the underbrush in check. They helped the [[Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)|Pilgrims]], who arrived in the fall of 1620, survive at their new [[Plymouth Colony]].

The Wampanoag gradually lost their lands during the period of European incursion through land cessions and violent conflict with white settlers. The documentary ''Natives of the Narrowland'' (1993), narrated by actress [[Julie Harris]], shows the history of the Wampanoag people through Cape Cod archaeological sites.

In 1974, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council was formed to articulate the concerns of those with Native American ancestry. They petitioned the federal government in 1975 and again in 1990 for official recognition of the Mashpee Wampanoag as a tribe. In May 2007, the Wampanoag tribe was federally recognized.<ref>{{cite news|title=Wampanoag tribe wins recognition |url=http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070525/NEWS/705250325 |author=Stephanie Vosk |publisher=Cape Cod Times |date=May 25, 2007 |access-date=June 5, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928040619/http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20070525%2FNEWS%2F705250325 |archive-date=September 28, 2007 }}</ref>

===European exploration===
Cape Cod was a landmark for early explorers. It may have been the "Promontory of [[Vinland]]" mentioned by the [[Norsemen|Norse]] voyagers (985–1025), although this is disputed. The Manomet River area (taken up by the western end of the Cape Cod Canal in the early 20th century) is claimed by some to have been visited by [[Leif Eiriksson]],<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.bournehistoricalsociety.org/aptucxettradingpost.html| publisher=Bourne Historical Society| access-date=February 27, 2011| title=Aptucxet Trading Post, Bourne Historical Society, Bourne, Cape Cod, MA| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110319100259/http://bournehistoricalsociety.org/aptucxettradingpost.html| archive-date=March 19, 2011| url-status=dead| df=mdy-all}}</ref> and a stone wall<ref name="Wikimapia link">{{cite web| url=http://www.wikimapia.org/#y=42044397&x=-70193120&z=16&l=0&m=h&v=2| title=The Norse Wall House on Wikimapia| access-date=February 13, 2007}}</ref> discovered in Provincetown in 1805 is also claimed to have been built by his younger brother [[Thorvald Eiriksson]] around AD 1007,<ref name="Norse Wall Cape Links">{{cite web| url=http://www.capelinks.com/cape-cod/main/entry/the-norse-wall/| title=The Norse Wall| access-date=February 13, 2007| publisher=capelinks.com}}</ref> when the keel of his ship was repaired in the harbor, according to [[Norse saga]]s. He was killed later in the same journey and is said to have been returned to this spot for burial.<ref>{{cite book| last=Jennings |first=Herman A. |title=Provincetown, or, odds and ends from the tip end |year=1890 |publisher=F. Hallett, Printer |location=Yarmouthport, Massachusetts |pages=9–14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VXdHAAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PA9}}</ref> However, there is no tangible support of the presence of Norse voyagers in Cape Cod,<ref>{{cite book|title=Massachusetts Encyclopedia|author=Tager, Jack and Jennifer L. Herman|publisher=North American Book Dist LLC|year=2008|isbn=9781878592651|page=280}}</ref> and the view is not generally accepted by archaeologists or historians.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Coast of Summer: Sailing New England Waters from Shelter Island to Cape Cod|last=Bailey|first=Anthony|publisher=Sheridan House, Inc|year=1999|isbn=9781574090741|page=[https://archive.org/details/coastofsummersai00bail_0/page/154 154]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/coastofsummersai00bail_0/page/154}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=A Journey Through Maine|last=Stockwell|first=Mary|publisher=Gibbs Smith|year=2006|isbn=9781423624165|page=48}}</ref>

[[Giovanni da Verrazzano]] approached it from the south in 1524. He named [[Martha's Vineyard]] Claudia, after [[Claude of France]], the wife of [[Francis I of France]].<ref name="History">{{cite web| url=http://history.vineyard.net/hfnorton/history.htm| title=HISTORY OF MARTHA'S VINEYARD| last=Baer| first=Chris| publisher=Historical Records of Dukes County, Massachusetts| access-date=June 27, 2009}}</ref> In 1525, Portuguese explorer [[Estêvão Gomes]] called it Cabo de la Arenas while sailing under the Spanish crown.<ref name="Weber1992">{{cite book| author=David J. Weber| title=The Spanish frontier in North America| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KOPdX2qaVrkC| access-date=March 18, 2012| year=1992| publisher=Yale University Press| isbn=978-0-300-05917-5| page=36}}</ref>

In 1602, [[Bartholomew Gosnold]] named the tip Cape Cod, the surviving term and the ninth oldest English place-name in the U.S.<ref name="NamesOnTheLand">{{cite book |title=Names on the Land: A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States |url=https://archive.org/details/namesofland0000unse |url-access=registration |last= Stewart| first=George |author-link=George R. Stewart| year=1945 |publisher= Random House| location=New York |page= [https://archive.org/details/namesofland0000unse/page/27 27]}}</ref> [[Samuel de Champlain]] charted its sand-silted harbors in 1606, and [[Henry Hudson]] landed there in 1609. Captain [[John Smith (explorer)|John Smith]] noted it on his map of 1614, and at last the [[Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)|Pilgrims]] entered the "Cape Harbor" and made their first landing near [[Provincetown, Massachusetts|Provincetown]]{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}} on November 11, 1620. They had their first encounter with the native inhabitants in nearby [[Eastham, Massachusetts|Eastham]].

===European settlement===
Cape Cod was among the first places settled by [[History of the Puritans in North America|Puritan colonists]] in North America. The Cape's fifteen towns developed slowly, aside from [[Barnstable, Massachusetts|Barnstable]] (1639), [[Sandwich, Massachusetts|Sandwich]] (1637), and [[Yarmouth, Massachusetts|Yarmouth]] (1639). The final town to be established on the Cape was [[Bourne, Massachusetts|Bourne]] in 1884, breaking off from Sandwich.<ref>[http://www.plymouthcolony.net/barnstable/barnhist.html Deyo, Simeon, ''The History of Barnstable County, NY, 1890'', Retrieved May 3, 2009]. Plymouthcolony.net (August 6, 1996).</ref> Provincetown was a group of huts until the 18th century. A channel from [[Massachusetts Bay]] to [[Buzzards Bay]] is shown on Southack's map of 1717. The present Cape Cod Canal was slowly developed from 1870 to 1914. The federal government purchased it in 1928.

Because of early colonial settlement and intensive land use, the Cape's vegetation was [[depauperate]] and trees were scarce by the time that [[Henry Thoreau]] saw Cape Cod during his four visits over 1849 to 1857.<ref>{{cite web|last=Thoreau|first= Henry David|title= Cape Cod |year=1865|url= http://thoreau.eserver.org/capecd00.html |access-date= May 3, 2009}}</ref> The settlers heated by fires, and it took 10 to 20 cords (40 to 80 m<sup>3</sup>) of wood to heat a home, so they cleared most of Cape Cod of timber early on. They planted familiar crops, but these were unsuited to Cape Cod's thin, glacially derived soils. For instance, much of Eastham was planted with wheat. The settlers practiced the burning of woodlands to release nutrients into the soil. Improper and [[intensive farming]] led to erosion and the loss of topsoil. Farmers grazed their cattle on the grassy dunes of coastal Massachusetts, only to watch "in horror as the denuded sands 'walked' over richer lands, burying cultivated fields and fences." Dunes on the outer Cape became more common, and many harbors filled in with eroded soils.<ref>[http://www.dianamuir.com/default/BPConservation.html "Reflections in Bullough's Pond", ''Conservation Matters''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004004757/http://www.dianamuir.com/default/BPConservation.html |date=October 4, 2011 }}, Summer 2000</ref>

By 1800, much of Cape Cod's firewood had to be transported by boat from [[Maine]]. The paucity of vegetation was worsened by the raising of [[merino]] sheep that reached its peak in New England around 1840. The early [[Industrial Revolution]] occurred through much of Massachusetts and [[Rhode Island]], but it mostly bypassed Cape Cod due to a lack of significant waterpower in the area. The Cape developed as a large fishing and [[whaling]] center as a result, and also because of its geographic position. After 1860 and the opening of the [[American West]], farmers abandoned agriculture on the Cape. By 1950, forests had recovered to an extent not seen since the 18th century.

===Modern era===
[[File:Cranberry Picking on Cape Cod.jpg|thumb|[[Cranberry]] picking in 1906]]

Cape Cod became a summer haven for city dwellers beginning at the end of the 19th century. Improved rail transportation made the towns of the Upper Cape, such as [[Bourne, Massachusetts|Bourne]] and [[Falmouth, Massachusetts|Falmouth]], accessible to [[Boston]]ians. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Northeastern mercantile elite built many large, shingled "cottages" along [[Buzzards Bay]]. The relaxed summer environment offered by Cape Cod was highlighted by writers including [[Joseph C. Lincoln]], who published novels and countless short stories about Cape Cod folks in popular magazines such as ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'' and the ''Delineator''.

[[Guglielmo Marconi]] made the first transatlantic [[wireless]] transmission originating in the United States from Cape Cod, at [[Wellfleet, Massachusetts|Wellfleet]]. The beach below the bluffs where his station was located is now called [[Marconi Beach]]. In 1914, he began construction of a new transatlantic wireless receiver station in [[Chatham, Massachusetts|Chatham]] and a companion transmitter station in [[Marion, Massachusetts|Marion]]. In 1920, the stations were acquired by RCA and, in 1921, Chatham began operations as a maritime radio station communicating to ships at sea using the callsign [[WCC (radio station)|WCC]]. WCC supported the communications of [[Amelia Earhart]], [[Howard Hughes]], [[Richard E. Byrd|Admiral Byrd]], and the ''[[LZ 129 Hindenburg|Hindenburg]]''. Marconi chose Chatham due to its vantage point on the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded on three sides by water. [[Walter Cronkite]] narrated a 17-minute documentary in 2005 about the history of the Chatham Station.

Much of the east-facing Atlantic seacoast of Cape Cod consists of wide, sandy beaches. In 1961, a significant portion of this coastline, already slated for housing subdivisions, was made a part of the Cape Cod National Seashore by President [[John F. Kennedy]]. It was protected from private development and preserved for public use. Large portions are open to the public, including the Marconi Site in [[Wellfleet, Massachusetts|Wellfleet]]. This is a park encompassing the site of the first two-way transoceanic radio transmission from the United States. ([[Theodore Roosevelt]] used Marconi's equipment for this transmission.)

The [[Kennedy Compound]] in [[Hyannis Port, Massachusetts|Hyannis Port]] was President Kennedy's [[summer White House]] during his presidency, and the Kennedy family continues to maintain residences on the compound. President [[Grover Cleveland]] maintained a summer home in the Gray Gables section of Bourne. Other notable residents of Cape Cod have included actress [[Julie Harris]], US Supreme Court justice [[Louis Brandeis]], figure skater [[Todd Eldredge]], composer and radio personality [[Canary Burton]], and novelists [[Norman Mailer]] and [[Kurt Vonnegut]]. Influential natives included patriot [[James Otis, Sr.|James Otis]], historian and writer [[Mercy Otis Warren]], jurist [[Lemuel Shaw]], and naval officer [[John Percival]].