KG around the cape summer 2021 - Flipbook - Page 76
A ROUND CA PE COD
History
Eastham was the location for the momentous initial interaction in 1620 between
a small Mayflower expedition and the local Nauset people, at what is now called
First Encounter Beach. The town of Eastham was officially incorporated in 1651,
and industries such as whaling, fishing, salt-making, and farming fueled its early
economy.
Its windswept coast famously enticed writer Henry Beston to build a lonely beach
shack and write The Outermost House, his much-loved 1928 account of a year on
Eastham’s wild outer beach.
Arts
The Hands on the Arts Festival is held each June on Windmill Green, whose
windmill, built in Plymouth in 1688 and moved to Eastham in 1808, is the Cape’s
oldest. Hosted by the Eastham Cultural Council, the free two-day event includes
a juried arts and crafts show, plus children’s hands-on art activities, music, dance,
puppetry and other performances. The Cultural Council also works to promote
excellence, education, and diversity in the arts, humanities, and interpretive
sciences via Mass Cultural Council grants.
Culture
Windmill Green is the location for another fun annual Eastham event: Windmill
Weekend. Held on the Saturday and Sunday following Labor Day, it features road
races, a sand art competition, band concerts, square dancing, a tricycle race, and
public recognition of local volunteers. The town has several historic sites and
museums, including the 1869 Schoolhouse Museum, The Swift-Daley House, the
Captain Penniman House at Fort Hill, and the Dill Beach Camp dune shack. Lower
Cape Community Access Television is housed at Nauset Regional High School
and offers community members opportunities to learn about TV production. The
high school is also the location for the quirky and popular Eastham Turnip Festival,
a celebration of the locally grown tuber.
Education
Eastham is one of the four Lower Cape towns that make up the Nauset Regional
School District, which shares Nauset Regional Middle School in Orleans and
Nauset Regional High School in North Eastham, which is situated on the edge of
the Cape Cod National Seashore. High school students also have the option of
attending Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in Harwich. Elementary-aged
students attend Eastham Elementary, and while there are no private K-12 schools
located in town, nearby towns offer private educational options.
Published in 1928, The Outermost House is a book by naturalist writer
Henry Beston, which chronicles living on the dunes of Eastham in all four
seasons. Beston had spent time on the Cape for a magazine article about
the Coast Guardsmen of the Outer Cape, and his small beach cottage,
nicknamed the “Fo’castle,” was located two miles south of the Nauset
Coast Guard station. His beach shack was relocated, and then eventually
washed away in a winter storm in 1978, but his observations about his life
on the beach are considered classics of American nature writing.
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