KG around the cape summer 2021 - Flipbook - Page 80
A ROUND CA PE COD
Arts
Wellfleet is well known as a mecca for artists and art lovers, with over a dozen galleries and
studios spread throughout town and supported by the Wellfleet Art Gallery Association. Since
1985, the award-winning Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT) has been producing new
works, modern classics, and innovative theatrical events in their architecturally unique theatre
located on Route 6. The smaller Harbor Stage Company, an ensemble of professional theater
artists, has been staging diverse material at an iconic seaside theater since 2012.
Culture
In just ten years, Wellfleet Preservation Hall, a beautifully restored downtown church, has
become the year-round hub for art and culture in the community. Also in Wellfleet is the Cape
Cod Modern House Trust, which preserves and celebrates the Outer Cape’s exceptional
modern architecture. The Wellfleet Historical Society and Museum collects and preserves the
story of Wellfleet through exhibits, research archives, and community engagement while the
Wellfleet Public Library hosts hundreds of music, dance, poetry, and education events each
year. The nonprofit Wellfleet Shellfish Promotion and Tasting (SPAT) sponsors the extremely
popular annual Oyster Fest every October, and Wellfleet Cinemas on Route 6 has the only
operational drive-in theater on Cape Cod, which has been screening films since 1957.
Education
Wellfleet Elementary School, located off Route 6, not far from the National Seashore, serves the
town’s kindergarten through fifth grade students. Wellfleet is part of the Nauset Regional School
District, along with Brewster, Orleans, and Eastham, and middle grade and high school students
attend Nauset Regional Middle School in Orleans, and the Nauset Regional High School in
neighboring Eastham, respectively. High school-aged students may also choose to study
at Cape Cod Regional Technical School in Harwich. There is one preschool, My Little Island
Preschool, located in South Wellfleet.
History
Native American artifacts discovered in Indian Neck indicate that the Punonakanit people,
members of the Wampanoag Federation, had lived in what is present day Wellfleet for
thousands of years. Europeans arrived in the early 1600s, and by 1650 Englishmen had settled
the area, including a large island in the harbor, naming it all Billingsgate. In 1793, Billingsgate
separated into the two towns of Wellfleet and Eastham, and the once-flourishing fishing
community on Billingsgate Island was eventually destroyed by erosion in the early 1900s. Now
only a shoal exposed at low tide, the former Billingsgate Island serves as a rest area for tired
kayakers and a rich fishing ground for anglers. Also noteworthy is Guglielmo Marconi’s historic
transatlantic radio transmitter station, built on a coastal bluff in South Wellfleet in 1901 to 1902.
The first radio telegraph transmission from America to England was sent from this station on
January 18, 1903.
Part of the National Seashore, the Atlantic White Cedar Swamp Trail is a
1.1-mile loop through a swamp canopied by the coastal evergreen conifer.
The hike is an easy walk through an unusual landscape. Most of the
peaceful, otherworldly trail is on a raised wooden walkway, and on foggy
days it can seem mystically beautiful.
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