Wellfleet, Massachusetts
| Wellfleet | |||
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 Wellfleet City Hall |
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| Location in Massachusetts | |||
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| Basic data | |||
| Foundation : | 1763 | ||
| State : | United States | ||
| State : | Massachusetts | ||
| County : | Barnstable County | ||
| Coordinates : | 41 ° 56 ′ N , 70 ° 2 ′ W | ||
| Time zone : | Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 ) | ||
| Residents : | 2,750 (as of 2010) | ||
| Population density : | 53.6 inhabitants per km 2 | ||
| Area : | 91.7 km 2 (approx. 35 mi 2 ) of which 51.3 km 2 (approx. 20 mi 2 ) is land |
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| Height : | 15 m | ||
| Postcodes : | 02667, 02663 | ||
| Area code : | +1 508/774 | ||
| FIPS : | 25-74385 | ||
| GNIS ID : | 0618261 | ||
| Website : | www.wellfleetma.org | ||
Wellfleet is a city in the state of Massachusetts in the United States . It is located on Cape Cod and half of its area is part of the Cape Cod National Seashore . In 2010 a total of 2750 people lived in the city; in the summer months, however, there are around six times as many. Wellfleet is best known today for its oyster farming , which is celebrated every October as part of the Wellfleet OysterFest.
geography
Expansion of the urban area
According to the United States Census Bureau , the urban area has a total area of 91.7 km², of which 51.3 km² are land and 40.4 km² are water.
Neighboring communities
Wellfleet is bordered by Truro to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Eastham to the south and Cape Cod Bay to the west.
history
Before 1620
The landscape between Orleans and Provincetown , also known as the Outer Cape and Lower Cape, was formed by glacial meltwater streams around 23,000 years ago. Cape Cod rests on crystalline rock from the Precambrian or Paleozoic Era , which is now 50 to 275 meters below the surface of the sea. With the retreat of the glacier and rising sea levels, the remaining piles of rock became islands; this is how Bound Brook Island and its southern neighboring islands Griffin and Great Island came into being around 18,000 years ago.
The first human settlements on Cape Cod could be traced back to Paleo-Indians who lived there 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. During the early and middle Archaic Periods 6,000 to 8,000 years ago, the population rose steadily; the oldest pottery and spearheads found have been dated to at least 7700 years. Two tombs found in Orleans and Eastham date from the late Archaic period 3,000 to 6,000 years ago. The area around Wellfleet - mostly around the estuary and the coasts - was populated by a branch of the Wampanoag known as Punanokanit or Nauset .
The English settlers valued the sheltered bay at Wellfleet for its excellent oyster beds and for the opportunity to land fish with nets and later also whales. The Pilgrim Fathers discovered the bay on their first explorations in 1620, but decided to build Plymouth on the opposite side of the bay. Only a few years later they expanded their settlement area on Bound Brook Island.
1620 to 1680
The first settlers who began exploring the Lower Cape recorded a very large population of plants such as oak , pine , sassafras , juniper , birch , holly , ash and walnut trees in their records . As early as 1605, the French explorer Samuel de Champlain described an Indian settlement on the Nauset coast with houses and small agricultural areas.
In 1615, however, there was an outbreak of smallpox , which was brought in by the Europeans , from which many Indians at Wellfleet died. Around 1620 only around 100 Punanokanite lived there. This made it easy for European settlers to occupy the Lower Cape and start building new farms in the 1640s. In 1644 the first of them came to Bound Brook and began growing crops and raising cattle, sheep and pigs. The cultivation of fruit trees as well as beets and tobacco plants also played an important role.
Today it is known through extensive research that the area around Wellfleet is only 40% fertile; the city ranks on the least fertile soil in the whole of the Lower Cape. According to current knowledge, the nature of the soil and its nutrient composition is either partially or even completely unsuitable for the type of crops that were cultivated by the English. Bound Brook Island consists largely of coarse sand , while along the Herring River and at Duck Harbor predominantly moist soils such as silt , bogs and coarse-grained loam soils can be found.
Due to the ruthless clearing and intensive agriculture of the early European settlers, the sandy soils lost much of their already poor fertility. The diversity of plants described by the first discoverers had given way to extensive grain fields, which were only occasionally interrupted by buildings. The upper layer of earth, previously protected by trees, was now exposed, dried out and was carried away by the wind. In 1663, most of the settlers moved on to look for more suitable land. However, some stayed in Wellfleet and now turned their attention to the ocean, to which they had easy access. It turned out that the site was far more suitable for fishing than for agriculture.
1680 to 1805
For a long time, boats were the most convenient means of transport around Nauset. With the King's Highway - initially little more than a dust track - the first public highway reached the Lower Cape in 1720. The road infrastructure, which was very poor until the American Revolutionary War , combined with a growing shipbuilding and shipbuilding industry, led to this Life mainly played out near the ocean. The first two meeting houses in 1712 and 1734 were built directly on the waterline. The first jetty was built before 1720 and served ships with molasses , sugar and other colonial goods from the West Indies as a loading and unloading point.
The fragile agriculture of the Lower Cape suffered not only from barren soil and limited land, but also from the inexorably moving sand that tended to cover the crops and threatened the pastures of Truro and Provincetown in the 1730s . In 1739, the Massachusetts General Court passed a law prohibiting animals from grazing on the affected areas and forcing local residents to replant American beach grass every year . Also were broom , pines , Myrica and Buckwheat used to stop the sand.
The fight against increasing soil erosion lasted into the 19th century despite declining agriculture. In addition, the demand for wood increased steadily, which was needed for the construction of large fishing boats, for the operation of the salt pans and, last but not least, for the construction of the houses.
In 1765 there were already 928 residents in the area around Wellfleet, including 14 African Americans and 11 Indians. On August 23, 1775, Wellfleet received city rights and by 1776 had a population growth to 1235 inhabitants. In 1792 there were only less than 6 Punanokanit left, and with Delilah Sampson Gibbs the last "Wellfleet Indian" died in the late 1830s.
Whaling was already very popular with the first colonists in the area, mainly because the settlers were initially supported by the Indians in catching pilot whales . What began with separating individual animals from their groups and trapping them on the bottom of the shallow bay quickly grew into a full-blown industry. 1771 decreed Wellfleet over 30 whaling ships and processed the blubber , bones, teeth and Tran whales. During the Revolutionary War, a third of the city's residents worked deep-sea whaling. Since there were no catch limits, the consequences of overfishing were already felt in 1715, and as early as 1775 cod and mackerel began to replace whaling as Wellfleet's most important industry.
The fishing and whaling of the Lower Cape came to an abrupt end when the British Navy blocked the sea along the entire New England coast during the War of Independence. As a result, many seafarers found themselves forced to earn their families with agriculture, smuggling or buccaneering . As a result, agriculture and animal husbandry, which had been practically abandoned, experienced a renaissance. The sea blockade was lifted after the end of the war, but it took years for the region's economy to recover. Relations with England remained strained, and in 1783 a ban on imports of US fishery products was imposed on the West Indies. To support the fishing industry, the US government offered rewards for achieving certain catches in 1789 and 1792. Cape Cod, in particular, benefited from the newly burgeoning industry due to its central location, which allowed short journeys to the Georges Bank . Nevertheless, Wellfleet was a base for only 5 whaling ships in 1802.
Bound Brook Island was completely surrounded by water until 1780, making it a real island. The waters on their south coast were so deep that Reuben Rich was able to build a 100-ton schooner at the foot of the hill below Atwood-Higgins House in 1800 . Common robinia , which grew in the immediate vicinity on the hill, served as building material . In the same year, parcel ships started their liner service between Wellfleet and Boston , thus enabling further growth in the population on Bound Brook Island.
1805 to 1900
The first Methodists , who held their first meetings on Bound Brook Island between 1823 and 1825 , also came to the region with the parcel ships shuttling between Boston and Wellfleet, which formed the backbone of the local economy as the only reliable connection to the mainland . Despite the fact that most of Wellfleet's residents were Congregationalists , the Methodists continued to gain support.
In the 1850s, Duck Harbor became the center of local shipping, with many Wellfleet families building their homes on the islands of Bound Brook, Merrick, and Griffin. In 1830 a new quay was built at the mouth of Duck Creek to supply the population, which has now increased to 2046, and the local industries.
With the growing number of inhabitants, the island's infrastructure was also continuously expanded. The first school building was erected in 1844, so that the previous practice of teaching in turns in the student houses could be abandoned. In addition to the ocean, the fish stocks in the Herring River were an important basis of the economy on Bound Brook Island. Alosa ( Alosa pseudoharengus ) caught in the river were poured into barrels and shipped to Boston, New York and the Caribbean in the 18th and 19th centuries . As a result, by the middle of the 19th century, the estuary had become one of Wellfleet's three ports.
Another growing industry at the time was the harvest of salt marsh grasses that thrived around Bound Brook Island and were primarily used as fodder. To do this, it was cut in August and September and left to freeze on wooden platforms. As soon as the water was frozen, these were carried away by horses; In this way, around 300 tons of salt marsh hay were harvested each year. The horses were equipped with special iron shoes, the nails of which provided a secure hold on the ice.
Up until the middle of the 19th century, salt production was an important economic factor in the region. In salt pans , the salt was obtained by evaporation from sea water. Since there were no cooling options for fresh fish, the salt was absolutely necessary to preserve the caught fish. In Wellfleet in 1837 there were no fewer than 37 salt pans, typically built near windmills that pumped the seawater into large basins where it could then evaporate.
In the 1830s, Cape Cod fishermen discovered that mackerel and other species of fish were migratory fish . So they were able to track the swarms from their birthplace near Virginia to the coast near Nova Scotia . In 1845 Wellfleet had 60 fishing vessels, which made them the world's second largest fishing fleet, only surpassed in size by the one in Gloucester . In 1850 the city reached its maximum population of 2,411 inhabitants, and in 1870 the fishing fleet had grown to 100 ships. Oyster farming also continued to gain in importance. By comparison, local agriculture had become almost insignificant with only 25 active holdings.
On December 28, 1870, the first Cape Cod Railroad train reached the newly built station in Wellfleet. This was accompanied by significant political, social, and economic changes on Bound Brook Island. For example, a railway embankment had to be built for the siding, which closed the inner harbor, which was previously very important for the city, from the sea and thus made it superfluous in a short time. This was the beginning of the transformation of the Lower Cape into a vacation spot for tourists. In 1871 the parcel boat service was discontinued, and more and more tourists arrived by train, which promoted the construction of hotels.
Some of the visitors stayed the same in Wellfleet and the surrounding area throughout the summer. By 1896, as many as 15 to 20 percent of Eastham's land was owned by non-residents. These seasonal, mostly very wealthy residents soon formed their own social groups and founded their own yacht clubs. Although they excluded the “real” residents, their need for fresh produce gave the local economy an enormous boost. This phase lasted from the 1890s to the 1930s. Similar developments also took place in other places in the USA, which, although they did not have great economic or industrial potential, had beautiful landscapes to offer. In this era, the architectural style of the Colonial Revival emerged on the basis of the restoration of historical buildings .
In 1885, Lorenzo Dow Baker bought the old quayside Mercantile Wharf and built the Checkessett Inn , a 62 room hotel , there by 1902 . The location is now known as Mayo's Beach. The hotel was so successful that bathhouses and country houses were quickly built around it. Baker was soon forced to build more residential buildings on Mayo's Beach to accommodate hotel guests for whom there was no more space in the main building.
1900 until today
However, the neighboring Herring River, which used to be one of Wellfleet's oldest and most productive resources, was breeding saltwater mosquitoes to keep tourists away from Mayo's Beach; In 1905 alone this resulted in economic damage amounting to 20,000 US dollars (today approx. 600,000 dollars). On the recommendation of the American Mosquito Extermination Society, a dam was built in 1908 to cut the river from the sea and dry up the swamps above. The insect problem was not finally solved, but the flow of tourists increased again and new holiday homes and hotels were built, which soon represented serious competition for the Chequessett Inn. Despite the flourishing tourism industry, there was still fishing in the Lower Cape, which benefited in particular from the connection to the railroad, as the fish could now be frozen and transported in large quantities in a short time directly to the markets in the area for sale. Oyster farming was never stopped either, although it was now competing with Chesapeake Bay .
In 1903 Guglielmo Marconi sent the first wireless telegram from North America to England from Wellfleet . The message from the President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt to the British King Edward VII read:
“In taking advantage of the wonderful triumph of scientific research and ingenuity which has been achieved in perfecting the system of wireless telegraphy, I extend on behalf of the American people most cordial greetings and good wishes to you and all the people of the British Empire. Theodore Roosevelt, Wellfleet, Mass. "
“Taking advantage of the wonderful triumph of science and ingenuity that perfected the wireless telegraph system, I extend my warmest greetings and best wishes to all residents of the British Empire on behalf of the American people . Theodore Roosevelt, Wellfleet, Mass. "
The king's short but successful answer ensured that Wellfleet went down in the history books. Today the place of transmission is listed as a Marconi Wireless Station Site on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1912, the towers in Wellfleet played a decisive role again, as they enabled the RMS Carpathia to rescue 712 castaways from the Titanic . However, the transmission towers had to be demolished in 1920 due to increasing soil erosion.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Wellfleet developed into a popular tourist destination, especially due to its clean beaches and clear water, whose popularity was not permanently affected by the weather events that occurred in the region. In the 1930s, for example, the Chequessett Inn was destroyed by drifting ice floes , a hurricane collapsed one of the Milton Hill cottages, and Billingsgate Island, popular for picnic trips, was flooded by high waves. Even if the “golden age” of the Lower Cape ended in this time, the tourists still came in large numbers.
Population development
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Based on the 2010 census , Wellfleet had 2,750 residents spread across 1301 households and 724 families. The population density was 138.6 people per square mile or 53.6 people per square kilometer. There were 3998 housing units at a density of 201.6 units per square mile (77.8 units per square kilometer).
The city's population was composed as follows: 96.58% White , 0.95% African American , 0.29% Indigenous American , 0.36% Asian , 0.04% Pacific Islander , 0.58% other races, and 1 , 20% two or more races . Hispanics and Latinos made up 0.69% of the population.
17.8% of households had children under the age of 18, 37.9% were married couples, 8.7% of households were led by single women and 49.9% of households were not classified as families. Singles lived in 34.1% of households, 12.4% were single seniors over 65 years of age. The average household size was 2.17 people and the average family size was 2.86 people.
The median household income was 43,558 US dollars , the median family income 50,998 US dollars. Males had a median income of $ 38,100 versus $ 35,964 for women. The city's per capita income was $ 25,712. 5.7% of families and 7.5% of the urban population lived below the poverty line , with 9.7% under the age of 18 and 6.0% over the age of 65.
politics
Wellfleet is represented in the Massachusetts House of Representatives as part of the fourth Barnstable District, which includes all Cape Cod parishes east and north of Harwich with the exception of Brewster. In the Massachusetts Senate , the city is part of the Cape and Islands District , which, with the exception of Bourne , Falmouth , Sandwich and part of Barnstable, includes all parishes of Cape Cod, as well as the towns on the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket .
Municipal council
Wellfleet is administered by an open community assembly that elects a board of selectmen as executive . An employed city manager takes care of the daily affairs.
Culture and sights
Buildings
Part of the city is listed as the Atwood-Higgins Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places .
Nature reserves
The Massachusetts Audubon Society maintains the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary in the metropolitan area .
Regular events
Every year in October the Wellfleet OysterFest takes place, which revolves around the oysters grown at Wellfleet.
Culinary specialties
The city is famous for its oysters , but Cape Cod fish such as mackerel and cod are also served fresh.
Economy and Infrastructure
traffic
The US Highway 6 runs from north to south Wellfleet therethrough. The city's business district is west of the coastal highway. The highway's route was straightened in the mid-20th century, and some road maps still refer to the original route as part of Massachusetts Route 6A . Wellfleet has neither a train station nor an airport connection; the last train left Wellfleet in the 1930s. The nearest regional airports are each 18 mi (29 km ) away in Chatham and Provincetown , while the nearest international airport is Logan International Airport in Boston . There are a few bus services to Hyannis and Provincetown.
Public facilities
Wellfleet has its own police and fire station. There are also two post offices on the highway, while the Wellfleet Public Library is in the city center.
education
Wellfleet, Brewster , Eastham, and Orleans make up the Nauset Regional School District . Each city has elementary schools , while the four cities share a regional middle school and high school . Wellfleet Elementary School is located on US Highway 6 near downtown. Nauset Regional Middle School is in Orleans, while Nauset Regional High School is in Eastham. There are no private schools in Wellfleet itself, but students can attend Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in Harwich free of charge.
Personalities
Personalities who have worked on site
- Samuel Bellamy (1689-1717), pirate
- Berry Berenson (1948-2001), actress
- Serge Chermayeff (1900–1996), architect
- Noam Chomsky (* 1928), professor of linguistics
- John Dos Passos (1896–1970), writer
- John M. Johansen (1916–2012), architect
- Robert Jay Lifton (born 1926), psychiatrist
- Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937), radio pioneer and Nobel Prize winner
- Anthony Perkins (1932–1992), actor
- Marge Piercy (* 1936), writer
- Edmund Wilson (1895–1972), literary critic
- Howard Zinn (1922-2010), historian
literature
- Donaldson, Emily; Laham, Lauren H .; Brown, Margie C .: Atwood-Higgins Historic District. Cultural Landscape Report and Outbuildings Historic Structures Report. National Park Service , 2010, accessed October 22, 2015 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ American FactFinder. United States Census Bureau , accessed October 22, 2015 .
- ↑ a b cf. Donaldson et al., P. 13.
- ↑ a b c cf. Donaldson et al., P. 14.
- ↑ a b c d cf. Donaldson et al., P. 15.
- ↑ a b cf. Donaldson et al., P. 16.
- ↑ a b cf. Donaldson et al., P. 17.
- ↑ a b cf. Donaldson et al., P. 18.
- ↑ a b c d cf. Donaldson et al., P. 19.
- ↑ cf. Donaldson et al., P. 20.
- ↑ a b cf. Donaldson et al., P. 21.
- ↑ a b cf. Donaldson et al., P. 22.
- ↑ a b cf. Donaldson et al., P. 23.
- ↑ cf. Donaldson et al., P. 31.
- ^ Index of Legislative Representation by City and Town, from Mass.gov . Archived from the original on February 1, 2015.
