Initial Impressions 2.0 #17: Never Ending Pumpkin, Nut Job Idiot Day, Coyote Conga Line, etc.

1. Mother’s Day was this past week. It was a great time as I got my mother a nice comfy office chair to help her with her many hours she spends making quilts for friends and family. It was made even better by the fact that I put the chair together on my own. Staples offered to put it together for me for the tidy sum of $60. Ha. Jokes on them, it took me 10 minutes to do. I do think they tried to sabotage me though as I was one screw short in the box.

2. Perhaps the wildest thing that has gone virtually unnoticed by me is the fact that my Halloween pumpkin is still alive and kicking. Yes, you heard right. The mini pumpkin I bought a few weeks before Halloween is still thriving now as we’ve passed Mother’s Day. Part of me wants to take it outside and smash it for a fun video. Another part of me wants to wait and see just how long this thing will last before it gets all rotten.

Still alive and well for now.

3. I guess I was feeling like connecting back to my childhood. Getting ready for the gym I put my shorts on backward. Then after fixing those I promptly put my shirt on backward. All I needed was to play ‘Jump’ and my Kriss Kross cosplay would have been complete.

4. It’s kind of funny how if you’re an adult and you turn on a kids’ show you are kind of like blah it’s baby stuff. However, if you turn on a kids’ show from when you were growing up you’re immediately engrossed in the highly important content it is sharing. I can watch 3-2-1 Contact from the 80s and feel like I’m learning but if I see Blues Clues & You and am like ‘man this is dumb.’

5. I watched a video on how to operate a new piece of technology we have at my work. At one point the man on the video said to sanitize some of the equipment you needed to submerge it in a diluted Hibiclens solution. I’d never heard of it. I actually thought he said ‘Hippie Cleanse.’ And yes I Googled it to see what it was. I thought I heard Google laughing at me once I hit ‘search.’

Not As Seen On TV

6. During the Halloween season I was always excited to see this one house on my way to work that had a 10-foot-tall skeleton in the front yard as part of the decorations. How did this person follow up that great scene? How about by writing some conspiracy theory garbage on his garage doors in black tape. I guess he’s celebrating a new holiday Nut Job Idiot Day.

7. Where I live there is a chunk of conservation land across the street. I tend to see a fair amount of wildlife like deer, turkeys, foxes, and owls. There are also a few coyotes. The other night while brushing my teeth I was looking out the window at dusk. I was sure I saw something walking up the driveway. Sure enough under the window passed a coyote. It was quickly followed by 3 more. They didn’t just pass through though, they were making tons of noise scurrying around in the leaves and bushes. Hopefully, no neighbors had pets outside. It’s like ringing the dinner bell.

Dramatization, the coyotes did not conga line through the yard.

8. A pet peeve I’ve had for a long time is when people grab some sort of food, whether a bag of chips in a sub shop, or like I saw today a bag of mini muffins, and begin to eat them before paying. Are you really lacking self-control so badly that you can’t even wait to pay for what you grabbed? You know there are people like that who eat some of what they grabbed and then don’t pay for it.

9. What would be worse? Talking to someone like they don’t understand what you’re saying? Or talking to someone like they should understand what you’re saying? I go back and forth when it comes to either speaking how I normally would or dumbing things down. I don’t want to over-explain something and make someone feel like I think they’re stupid, but I also don’t want to under-explain something and then make them feel bad if they don’t understand. It’s actually something I think about a lot when explaining technical health and fitness things to people.

10. I’ve had my car for 10 years. It’s been paid off for 3 ½ years. I’m hoping to have it for at least another 5 years to get to over 250K miles. I think it’s finally time to step up my bumper sticker game with it. I’m not saying I want 100 covering every inch of the back, but a couple dozen might be on the way. Nothing says class like tons of bumper stickers!

11. A beach near where I work has a bit of pavement that runs from the parking lot to the start of the beach. It makes the walk to the sand a little easier. On a fence post is a sign that tells you no vehicles are allowed on this 40-ish foot-long paved area. Because of course, some people are so stupid that they would see that and think it’s just another road. These are the same people who would do the stunts you see in commercials so advertisers have to put ‘do not attempt’ on the screen to avoid being sued by morons.

Because yes, people are that stupid.

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - The Cape's Worst Wildfire

    When one hears the word ‘wildfire’ it typically refers to tragic events that commonly occur in California. The routinely dry conditions, which give the state some of the most desirable weather in the country, also leave it vulnerable to fires. The largest wildfire, in August 2020, burned more than one million acres of land in six counties and destroyed 935 structures. In comparison the entirety of the Cape Cod National Seashore is 43,607 acres.

    Despite it not being as serious a threat to the Cape as hurricanes and blizzards are, wildfires have occurred more often than you would think. The worst fire in Cape Cod history happened over seventy-five years ago and this is the story of the perfect storm that led to it.

    The seeds of the worst forest fire in Cape Cod history were sown beginning eighteen months prior. The Great Atlantic Hurricane struck New England on September 15, 1944 with heavy rain and strong winds. Needless to say the winds toppled countless trees. By the time the spring of 1946 arrived there were still plenty of those dead trees lying where they fell.

    The late-winter and early-spring of 1946 were particularly dry. The threat of potential wildfires was so high that in March State Deputy Fire Warden Ormand Dottridge Jr. warned residents of what could happen. Regulations were put into place for burning leaves and people were implored to be careful and not start anything they couldn't finish.

    Watch-tower service and forest fire patrols were put into service. Despite this there were small fires that began breaking out in late March. These were a precursor of what was to come.

    Early on April 19, 1946 fire broke out in Sandwich in the area near the Bourne Bridge. Northwest winds gusting up to 35mph combined with the relatively dry conditions were a terrible combination. The fire pushed south and east through the Shawme-Crowell State Forest and toward Camp Edwards(Otis AFB).

The Bourne Bridge, near where the fire originated. 

    Firefighters temporarily got the fire in check by building several backfires a mile from Sandwich center. This was only brief though and by 9pm on April 20^th a 15-square mile area of Sandwich and Mashpee was burning or charred. Governor Maurice Tobin closed all public forest land in Southeastern Massachusetts. He also went to the Cape to help direct operations. There was still a few days before a chance of rain and the situation was extremely serious.

Barnstable County Brush Breaker c.1942(CapeCodFD.com)

    Sandwich, Bourne, and West Barnstable were temporarily left without power as fire scorched the wires. The fire jumped across Route 130 and seemed to be on a collision course with West Barnstable and possibly Hyannis. More than 3,000 firefighters came from fifty-two different communities and worked nonstop building backfires, digging trenches, and working the fire hoses. They were led by John Stokes, the state commissioner of public safety, who left Boston to help. The group set up headquarters the East Sandwich Grange Hall on Old County Road.

    At midday on April 21^st the fire could be seen and smelled in Hyannis. It was only six miles west of the airport. The State Police barracks in South Yarmouth expressed their concern if the winds did not subside. The flames got to within a quarter-mile of forty homes in Sandwich. Much of Rt. 130 and parts of Route 6A(then Old Kings Highway) were closed to all but fire vehicles. Trains from Boston to Hyannis were diverted to Woods Hole with passengers then being shuttled by bus the rest of the way.

    Late in the afternoon of April 22^nd the blaze had finally been contained. What turned the tide was the firefighters burning a 1,000-foot wide hollow square around the fire.

The Sandwich Fire Tower that was a big part of the event.(CapeCodFD.com)

    When all was said and done authorities estimated 30-35,000 acres of Cape Cod land had burned, though the official number is likely closer to 15,000. More than twenty-five structures were lost and over one hundred people had been evacuated from their homes. The fire traveled a total of 8 ½ miles east from the Bourne Bridge. The price tag of damage was said to be more than $1 million($14.74 million in 2022). It took another 24-48 hours to fully extinguish the fire. In the immediate aftermath it was described as the worst forest fire in Massachusetts history.

    The worst part of the entire ordeal was the fact that these fires appeared to have been deliberately set. They were a series of small fires that came together to wreak havoc on the Upper Cape.

    On April 26^th two Falmouth men, Theodore Andrade and Ruby Antone, were arrested in connection with the fires. Local authorities said that up to twelve fires had been set and that they thought there were more than two people responsible. The two men claimed that they had spotted one of the fires and had stopped to try to put it out.

    The dry weather did not subside and less than two weeks later two more massive fires broke out. The fires that occurred on May 7^th centered in Yarmouth and West Barnstable ended up destroying 8,000 more acres. Unbelievably officials believed these fires to be deliberately set as well.

    In October 1946 Andrade and Antone faced a Grand Jury for their possible roles in the fires. Before they even went to trial they were found guilty for receiving stolen goods and sentenced to six months in jail. That charge was later overturned and the Grand Jury dismissed the charges pertaining to the fires. No other suspects were ever arrested.

    The most devastating forest fire on Cape Cod was actually captured on film. The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation is responsible for the filming and it is broken up into two parts on YouTube. You can see the terrible damage caused and also the tireless work of the brave firefighters who fought to put it out.

Cape Cod Brush Fire 1946 Part 1

Cape Cod Brush Fire 1946 Part 2

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Previous Blog Posts:

Cape Cod History - West Barnstable Brick Company

Cape Cod History - Mid-Cape Highway Exit 6 1/2

Be sure to check out my website: Christopher Setterlund.com

Zazzle Store: Cape Cod Living

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - The Cape's Conservation Story

     The world’s population as of 2020 is 7.8 billion people. The total land area of the planet is 148.94 million square miles as of 2017, and that includes areas not suitable for human habitation. As the population continues to grow developable land is becoming more and more of a premium.

     It is true everywhere including Cape Cod. The population of the peninsula as of 2018 was 213,471. This is up a whopping 300% from the population of 70,286 in 1960. According to a United States Geological Survey in 2018 Cape Cod has lost approximately 4,400 acres of land due to erosion over the preceding 100 years. This means as the population grows usable lands shrinks.

     A major development in the 20th century was that of land conservation to protect and maintain the beauty of nature for generations to come. The conservation of land in American began in 1901 when Theodore Roosevelt was elected President. Roosevelt established 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, 4 national game preserves, 5 national parks and 18 national monuments on more than 230 million acres of public land.

Theodore Roosevelt at Yosemite National Park c.1903 (National Park Service)

     Cape Cod has its own share of beloved conservation areas such as the Cape Cod National Seashore and Nickerson State Park. These are two of the biggest parcels of conserved land on Cape Cod and only two of many. However it all began somewhere. The movement toward preserving the natural beauty of Cape Cod ensuring that it would not be developed as the population grew. This is the story of the beginnings of the conservation movement on the Cape.

     Though President Roosevelt brought the conservation of land to the forefront in 1901 in Massachusetts protecting the natural resources began a bit earlier. In April 1891 the state established The Trustees of Public Reservations for the purpose of ‘acquiring, holding, arranging, maintaining and opening to the public...beautiful and historical places and tracts of land in the state.’ In 1954 it dropped the ‘Public’ from its name and as of 2020 it owns, assists with, or holds under conservation restrictions more than 72,000 acres of land in Massachusetts.

     In June 1909 a Bill was signed by Governor Eben Draper for improvements to aide the conservation of Bass River entrance. The $10,000 ($281,000 in 2020) Bill allowed for the restoration of stone jetties to help prevent shoaling and slow erosion. Also in 1909 the first public wellfield was created in Truro in the interest of protecting aquifer lands; this wellfield served Provincetown.

     In March 1913 the Dennis Village Improvement Society created the first public park on Cape Cod. This was located on what was called the North Mill Lot, at the meeting of New Boston Rd. and Nobscussett Rd. This was where the first windmill in town was built in 1745. Today the Dennis Village Playground still stands at the site. In 1920 the first steps were made to protect the wondrous Sandy Neck. Two acres of land was donated to the Town of Barnstable by John D.W. Bodfish in the memory of his father Benjamin in 1920. It was given to assure that the public could have access to the beach. After many more donations of land over the last century Sandy Neck Beach Park stands at 4,700 acres of natural beauty preserved with 1,500 acres open for all to enjoy. Nickerson State Park was born in September 1934 when Roland C. Nickerson’s widow Addie donated 1,900 acres of land to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

A marker for North Mill Lot with the Dennis Playground behind it.

     Various donations were made over the years helping to increase the amount of protected Cape Cod land. Eventually though it became necessary to create organizations dedicated to the acquisition and conservation of lands on the Cape. The first such organization came early in 1958 with the creation of a Conservation Commission in Barnstable.

     The largest addition to conservation land on Cape Cod came in August 1961. It was then that more than 43,000 acres of land on the Outer Cape was designated by President John F. Kennedy as the Cape Cod National Seashore. Inside the Seashore boundaries include such Cape Cod icons as Nauset Lighthouse, Coast Guard Beach, the Marconi Wireless Site, the Peaked Hill Bars Dune Shacks, and many more. In 2014 alone more than 4.4 million people paid visits to this crown jewel of Cape Cod conservation.

The high cliffs of Wellfleet in the Cape Cod National Seashore.

     A year after the creation of the National Seashore came another landmark in the Cape’s conservation efforts. Town conservation commissions had been popping up throughout Cape Cod in the years prior, however in 1962 the first private nonprofit land trust organization was formed. In August 1962 the Chatham Conservation Foundation was formed with the help of Robert McNeece, a town Selectman, former President of the Chatham Chamber of Commerce, and would become the head of the Cape Cod Baseball League from 1972-1976.

     The first land gift given to the Chatham Conservation Foundation came from Dorothea W. Smith on October 23, 1962. Her donation was Fox Hill Island, a 2.5 acre property located in Pleasant Bay just off of Eastward Point. Since that generous first donation the foundation had received many more to the tune of 224 parcels of land totaling more than 800 acres today.

     The concept of the nonprofit land trust was a success and as of 2016 there were 1,800 such entities in America with about 140 in Massachusetts alone. In 1986 the Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts, Inc. was formed and currently works with 27 local and regional trusts for the continued protection and management of open space properties.

     For more than a century Cape Cod has been protecting and preserving much of its natural beauty for generations gone by and generations to come. There are giants like the Cape Cod National Seashore and Nickerson State Park. There are popular spots like Crowe’s Pasture in Dennis and South Cape Beach State Park in Mashpee. There are also lesser known gems like Monks Park in Pocasset and Bell’s Neck in Harwich. There is no shortage of beauty and wonder located outdoors on Cape Cod. Take a drive, take a ride, take a walk, just get out and enjoy it.

-------------------------------------------------------

My 5th book, Cape Cod Nights, is on sale at Amazon.com and through Arcadia Publishing

View my previous blog posts: In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Cape Cod and the Telephone

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Dr. Higgins and the Cape's First Automobile

Photo Prints available here: Smug Mug.com

Be sure to check out my website: Christopher Setterlund.com

In My Footsteps: Trip 3: Dennis, Mass.

In My Footsteps

Christopher Setterlund

Trip 3: Dennis, Massachusetts

January 16, 2010


Located in the Mid-Cape area, Dennis has many well known attractions. The beaches are famous: West Dennis, Corporation, and Chapin to name a few. There are numerous historical landmarks including Scargo Tower. As in my other travel blogs I am trying to find places not as easily found on any vacation guide.

The journey begins quite aptly on historic Route 6A. Also known as Old King’s Highway, Route 6A was the most used roadway on Cape Cod before Route 28 and the Mid-Cape highway came around. Thought to have begun as an Indian trail from Plymouth to Provincetown, it became part of Plymouth’s ‘King’s Highway’ in the late 17th Century.

A drive along this road is a rich tapestry of historical homes and monuments. So protective of the history on Route 6A is the Cape that even changing the color of ones home is subject for intense debate at town meetings. This road in and of itself is a worthwhile adventure, complete with large oak trees hovering over the road and old horse hitching posts located just off of the sidewalk.

One of the first places to see is a spot that is technically in neighboring Yarmouth by about 1,000 feet. That would be Bray Farm(right). Established in 1639, this small farm is open to the public year round. Even on a sunny January day like today one can park and walk the grounds and see the animals roaming. From the requisite sheep, goats, and chickens, to donkeys, bees, and the oddly beautiful Scottish cattle, Bray Farm will thrill children and adults alike. The owners are very friendly and will gladly answer any questions you may have. There is even a boardwalk along the back end of the property with a spectacular view facing toward Grey’s Beach in Yarmouth.

A little further down Route 6A, just across the street from Osprey Lane is another piece of Cape Cod history. Through a natural tunnel of trees sits the burial ground of the Nobscussett tribe of Indians which lived in Dennis hundreds of years ago(left). The grounds are fenced in and marked by a stone stating that the chief of the tribe was named ‘Mashantampaine.’ Also the site holds a great view of Scargo Lake at the back end of the burial ground, but there are many other spots with better access to the lake.

One of those spots is a conservation area in close proximity to Scargo Tower, named Scargo Park. The tower and park are named for the legendary Nobscussett Indian Princess Scargo who was so beautiful that legend has it other Indian warriors would come from all parts of Cape Cod just to see her and bring gifts to help sustain her people.

Dennis, like much of Cape Cod, has numerous conservation areas great for hiking and animal watching. Scargo Park is a hidden gem down a windy dirt road just off of Scargo Hill Road. With an elevated view of Scargo Lake, along with swings for children and a sheltered picnic area, this conservation area is a worthwhile stop for any visitor.

Old Bass River Road, another historical drive, leads you to another great conservation area called Indian Lands. Located next to the Dennis Town Offices, the Indian Lands conservation area is actually closer to three areas in one. There is a set of paths which lead down toward Bass River with a great view of the Highbank Bridge. The master path runs along the power lines and is a tougher hike with soft sand and stones mixed together. The other pathway is a set of defunct railroad tracks(left) almost totally overgrown with small trees and plants. Follow these and you will come to a bridge crossing over Bass River with a view of the rushing highway traffic rushing by on the right.

Not to be missed in the same parking area as the Indian Lands and the Dennis Town Offices is another piece of history. Called either Old South Dennis Cemetery or Dennis Ancient Cemetery(right), it lies behind the Town Offices in a fenced in area but is accessible. The graves contain some of the last names most associated with Cape Cod. Names like Baker, Bangs, and Nickerson fill many of the plots.

There is nothing against all of the great beaches and other historical sites that Dennis has to offer. They should all be visited as well. Once those have all been seen, or if you are trying to see the Cape Cod that locals know, check out the places mentioned above. You won’t be disappointed. Have fun and happy traveling!

Directions: Bray Farm: from Rt. 6A turn on Bray Farm Road and follow it to the end.

Nobscussett Indian Burial Grounds: from Rt. 6A, turn left on Osprey Lane, located less than ½ mi. east of the Red Pheasant Inn. Grounds are directly across the street, but parking is difficult, may be better off walking to this spot from elsewhere.

Scargo Park: from Rt. 6A, turn onto Old Bass River Road. Take left onto Scargo Hill Road. Scargo Tower is designated by a big sign; Scargo Park is the second left after the tower.

Dennis Town Offices: from Rt. 6A, turn onto Old Bass River Road, follow it approximately four miles. The town offices are designated by a green sign on the right side. There is access to both the Indian Trails and the Dennis Ancient Cemetery from the parking lot.

References: Cape Cod Gravestones

The Legend of Princess Scargo

Cape Cod Commission - History of Rt. 6A

South Dennis on Dwellable