Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #91: Weird Sneezes, Hot Dog Head, When Henry Met Henry, etc.

1. Have you ever noticed how some people have odd-sounding sneezes? Like most people typically have a sneeze that sounds like what you’re probably thinking of right now. Every now and then, though, you come across a sneeze that stands out as weird. I was in my car in a parking lot when I heard a man start sneezing outside his car. Well, either sneezing or coughing. Anyway, it sounded like a human/bird combination. I was able to get a good read on it since the guy stayed outside of his car, sneezing loudly for several minutes. It got to be pretty disturbing because of how loud it was. I couldn’t tell if he was sneezing or having some sort of fit. Other people were looking, but nobody said anything. The guy ended up driving away without incident, but left us all with a strange story to tell.


2. It’s interesting how life comes full circle sometimes. In 1999, I’d go to the beach and listen to new(ish) Toad the Wet Sprocket on CD. All the while being inspired to write poetry in a notebook. In 2025, I’m listening to new(ish) Toad the Wet Sprocket streaming on Spotify while being inspired to write poetry in a Word document. From Quarter-Life to Mid-Life, some things still remain.


3. This is a bit of the weird and random stuff that I caused myself. In New England, we got a massive Nor’easter for a good 3 days. In all, we ended up with something like 4 inches of rain in total. I was out for a drive surveying the damage when I got an idea. My car is white, therefore it is almost always dirty. With the rain still falling at a good clip, I got an idea. I decided to stop at the store and buy some cleaning wipes and paper towels. You see where this is going. Since there was nobody else on the roads, I stopped at a park. I then proceeded to ‘wash’ my car using the cleaning wipes, rain, and paper towels. I ended up with a pile of wet garbage that I had to throw away. It wasn’t as sparkly clean like a proper car wash would have given, but all in all, my car looked much better after that. Laugh if you want, I know I did as I realized how crazy I looked. I would have died if someone pulled up and saw this idiot using a roll of paper towels to ‘clean’ his car.


4. Some people are an enigma wrapped in a riddle. Some are just idiots. There is a guy at my gym, probably early 50s. He works out in jeans, whatever that says about him. Anyway, he comes into the gym and exclusively uses the elliptical machine. He makes sure to thoroughly clean the machine before using it, which is great. Then he sweats all over it and never cleans it afterward. What is up with that? To top it off, I passed him at the grocery store, and upon entering, he put hand sanitizer on. I was confused. So this guy cares about getting germs from others, but not about sharing his? Okay, buddy, oh, and your head looks like a boiled hot dog in shape and shininess.

Yup, pretty much like that

5. An update from last week. The cute girl came back into my work. I had a client scheduled while she’d be there. As luck would have it, my client rescheduled to an earlier time, meaning I’d be free when she showed up. She ended up arriving 10 minutes late and mentioned being really tired. So even though I was able to speak to her, I knew I needed to keep it shorter since her appointment was behind. It ended up being good, brief but good. I guess I just have to keep practicing patience and persistence. She’ll be back in a few weeks. That’ll give me plenty of time to have some witty lines and try to make sure my schedule is open.


6. In October, as the weather starts to get cooler, we more often see an invasion at my work. Crickets begin to get inside and set up shop in the baseboards and dark corners. Their chirps echo off the cement floors and can drive you crazy. I began stalking one this week and swore that it was a ventriloquist because whenever I got to where I thought it was, the sound started coming from somewhere else. At one point, it slipped out from a baseboard, and I tried to catch it, but it went right back in and chirped like a jerk in my face. The next morning, I came in and there was the cricket sitting in the middle of the bathroom floor. I caught it in a paper cup and put it outside. It didn’t even try to escape. I wonder if it felt bad for humiliating me the day before and gave itself up?


7. I don’t know if this is embarrassing or not, but I only this week discovered that there are two different cookies, macarons and macaroons. I thought there was just the coconut macaroons, and that people sometimes misspell it as macaron. Nope. A macaron is what looks like a fluffy, soft Oreo in different colors. How is this something I’m just realizing? Next, you’re gonna tell me Hellman’s and Best Foods mayo is the same thing. Or that Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s are the same restaurant.

8. While at the grocery store, I bumped into my Uncle Steve, whom I haven’t seen in months. He was my running mentor since he became a marathon runner in his 50s. Now he’s retired from running and work in general, so it has become harder to bump into him. I was caught off guard a little by just how much he looks like my Grampa, just with shorter hair. I mentioned it to him, and he said that he looked so much like his father that people were mistaking them. The only problem is my Grampa died 6 years ago. My uncle joked that people must have thought Grampa’s ghost was haunting the nursing home where he died, which is also where my uncle worked. I laughed loud enough that people started staring at us, but who cares? I always leave a conversation with my Uncle Steve feeling better about myself. I never take that for granted.


9. This week marked what would have been my Grampa’s 100th birthday. I was thinking of him a lot, and when visiting my mom, we shared stories of him. My sister Ashley arrived, and we all were chatting. I noticed the sunset as the pink sky continued to grow. It wasn’t until my mom called for us that we saw the incredible sunset rainbow from the backyard. It had been raining, but never did I think I’d see a sunset rainbow. As we all took photos, we realized how symbolic it was that the rainbow was on Grampa’s birthday. Maybe it was a gift to him, or for us from him, but it made the day even more special.

10. A good chunk of this week’s blog will be dedicated to the When Henry Met Henry short film project. I had put together a fundraiser to allow us to hire cast and crew. This weekend was the big filming day. Being that in total it will likely be somewhere between 6-8 minutes in length it took us about 4 hours to film it. There were 5 of us total at the shoot, and things went as well as we could have hoped. So there’s a little overview.


11. They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression. I had promised to arrive at the filming location, a beach in Wellfleet, with a Box O’ Joe from Dunkin’. Yes, I did that part. As the crew trickled in, half of us walked the roughly 1/3 mile to where we’d be shooting. Only when we got there did one of the crew ask where the cups were for the coffee. Yup, I forgot the cups. Well, in all honesty, the people at Dunkin’ didn’t give them to me, as it was so busy, but I still should have waited and asked. That was my first impression. Hey, how about we all just chug scalding hot coffee from a box? Nah, I’ll pass.


12. Speaking of the location. It was perfect. A very secluded sand dune that went off the beach and into nearby woods. But as you just read, it was about 1/3 of a mile from the parking lot. Not too bad if you’re out for a leisurely stroll, but when you’re lugging equipment and making 3 trips each way, it can become a chore. I ended up walking well over 3 miles in the sand. All I can say is that it was a better workout than many I have had recently. After eating something small at 6am, and doing all of that walking, I was able to eat a big McDonald’s dinner and still was 400 calories below my allotment for the day.

13. They say the greatest accomplishments come when leaving your comfort zone. I definitely did that. I had no idea about directing, producing, or anything like that. I was dropped into the deep end on this film. Our sound person couldn’t make it, so I was tasked with that. I had to learn on the fly. I think I did all right, but it’ll be determined during the editing. While the actors and director were very loose and chatty with each other, I spent a lot of my time listening and learning all I could. My hope is that with each experience in film, I learn more and more until maybe one day I can lead my own project. We’ll see.


14. Oh, and by the way, just because it’s mid-October and summer is long gone doesn’t mean you can’t get sunburned. Take it from me and my red face. Well, except for the whiter areas around my eyes since I was wearing sunglasses. The only good thing about a sunburn in the fall is that the temperatures dropping into the 40s at night make sleeping easier than if it were 70 and humid at night.


15. Fun fact: we filmed When Henry Met Henry on the same weekend as the famed Wellfleet Oysterfest. It typically brings 10-20,000 people to the town over the weekend. Luckily, we all got to the beach way ahead of the crowds, so we didn’t worry about parking. Not too long after, several school buses showed up as they would be shuttling people over to the festival. When we headed out to the shooting location, there were maybe a dozen cars in the parking lot. When we returned at the end, not only was the lot full, but cars were lined down the street. On my drive home, going through Wellfleet, the vehicles were lining the streets in a lot of places. It just shows how luck was on our side with the film.

The cast and crew

16. To wrap it up, I plan on making a video where I go over more of the behind-the-scenes of the making of the film. I decided to get a jump on that this weekend. I was about 7 minutes into recording the video when my recording software froze up and I lost it all. Obviously, I was mad, but what made it worse was that this was the 2nd straight time I’d tried to record a video on that software only for it to glitch out mid-record. I was so blinded with rage that I nearly shattered my webcam slam dunking it on the floor. It took several rounds of embarrassing fail videos on YouTube for me to feel better.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #89: Cart Crunch, I Knew It, Annoying Subway, etc.

1. Who’s at fault? I watched an old man driving a pickup truck that’s way too big for him. He was pulling into a handicapped parking spot. Either he didn’t see or didn’t care that there was a shopping cart sitting up against the curb. I saw it coming and waved my arms, but it was too late. The crunch was super loud as he sandwiched the cart against the curb. His bumper didn’t fall off, but it was definitely damaged. A mother and daughter got out of another car and pulled the cart away when he backed up. Of course, the man blamed whoever left the cart there for being lazy. So again, who is at fault? The lazy person who left their cart in a handicapped spot? Or the man who just plowed into it? I’d say maybe the guy should buy a smaller car so he can see, but what do I know?


2. I don’t know about you, but I find it disgusting when someone blows a snot rocket in a public place. I also find it disgusting when a woman does it. So when I stepped outside of the gym and saw a woman blowing a snot rocket on the sidewalk, you might say it was the worst of both worlds. Don’t worry, there will be no graphic details. I’ll leave that up to your imagination. All I’ll say is that when she turned around, she definitely looked like the type of person who would do such a thing. Just low class, no regard for others. It’s like, at least go behind the building to do that, since I’m sure you’re used to hiding behind buildings to do things anyway.


3. So I did a thing this week. I published my 10th book. In Their Footsteps: The Interesting People, Places, and Events of Cape Cod History. It is obviously a history anthology. It features 40 stories in chronological order. I had been working on this for many months in addition to several other projects. I even crafted a simple landing page for people to get more information and to order the book in either paperback or ebook form. I self-published it mostly because I didn’t want to wait 18 months for it to be published traditionally when all of the materials were done. That’s like making a fancy dinner but not being able to serve it for months. If people enjoy this book, I have enough material to make two more volumes, but I’ll have to wait a few months to see if the interest is there. I am stretched pretty thin as it is so I need to be certain before I spend another big chunk of time on a project. Here is the landing page, by the way: In Their Footsteps Book


4. Typically, when I drive to Walmart, it is low-hanging fruit as far as content for this blog. I tend to see several people or incidents that immediately get made into a note in my phone. You can imagine my disappointment when I drove nearly an hour to Walmart only to have *gasp* a normal experience. I even did 2 full laps around the entire store just in case I’d missed something. Nope. It was all normal. Now granted, there was a lady who had a giant labradoodle in the store for some reason. There was also a guy older than me with a bright purplish/blue haircut, but these are not the types of craziness I was hoping for. I wanted people rolling on the floor fighting over the last box of Velveeta, not people happily shopping and getting along. Weak.

So disappointed....

5. While driving back in sadness from my Walmart trip, I stopped at a place I hadn’t visited in over 10 years. The Waquoit Bay Reserve is in East Falmouth. It overlooks the bay, naturally, and has loads of scenic trails, a cool cemetery, and the visitors center is filled with educational material. I did a walk on my own and decided to take a few minutes to sit at a picnic table and enjoy the moment. While I was there, a group of people came out of the visitors center with an employee giving them some historical information. Once they went walking on the trails, the employee stopped and we chatted for a while. He used to work at Plimoth Plantation, so he had loads of info about the Pilgrims, etc, which I enjoyed. I also particularly enjoyed when he’d slip into Olde English to talk about certain topics from the 1600s. What I thought would be a quick hello ended up being closer to a half hour, and I loved every second. It was fitting and funny that when he was going back inside to close up, he said, ‘Sorry, as you can tell I hate talking about history.’ I smiled and said back, ‘And you can tell I obviously hate hearing about it.’ He gave me some stories that might make good future blog posts, but I need to research them first.

The boat house at Waquoit Bay

6. There’s nothing quite like the mini heart attack you get when you’re sound asleep and you hear a crashing sound in your room. I woke up and looked around in the dark and saw nothing. I figured it must have been a dream that was too real. Then it happened 2 more times. Finally, at 4am I got out of bed and stood in the dark in the middle of my room waiting for the sound again so I could figure out what it was. It turned out that the wind had picked up so much during the night that it was blowing my blinds, which then would crash into the window frame. At that point, I just closed my window and went back to bed. Of course, I was so wired from the noise that it took me forever to go back to sleep. I’d have almost been better off just staying up. Oh well, at least it wasn’t a killer waiting to jump me in my closet.


7. There was a bit of an ‘I knew it,’ moment when I went to get my haircut this week. I always go to the same place. The person who I prefer to cut my hair is someone I’ve known for years and who always does an excellent job. However, because he is so good at his job, you need to book an appointment, and he is often booked out for weeks. The last time I had no choice but to do a walk-in and have one of the others on staff do the cutting. This guy talks way too much, bragging about how good he is going to make you look. It’s off-putting. During the haircut, he left to go into the backroom a few times and seemed to not be paying as much attention as he should to a paying customer whose hair he was cutting. I left there feeling like I got ripped off. It wasn’t short enough, and it looked uneven in a few places. Flash forward to this week, and I was right. The barber told me he needed to even things out because it was a bit of a mess. It’s all fixed now and looks great, but that other guy is a big mouth hack, which is why I’m not giving names here.


8. In the weekly cuteness alert, I mentioned last week that my youngest niece, Sylvie, gave me a blade of grass to keep when I was waiting for her school bus. This week I got another gift. It was a random stick that she wanted me to keep. Knowing that she’s smart and will call me out on it if I say I kept it but threw it away, I brought it with me on my walk. I was 2 miles into my walk when I shot a quick video for social media showing me with the stick by the water. So I had proof I kept it...for a while. Once the video was over, I left the stick on a bench. Luckily, she won’t know about that until she reads this blog in the future. But who knows, I might be long dead by then, so I won’t have to feel bad.


9. This weekend, I took a drive out to an area of beach that we plan on using to shoot the short film called When Henry Met Henry, my directorial debut. It was location scouting so that the rest of the crew could get a feel for where we’d be without having to actually drive there. I lauded this beach for being very secluded during the off-season. I walked about 1/3 mile to the specific spot where we will film, which is a beautiful trail over the dunes that leads into the woods. There was nobody around, well, except for one couple. Do you want to guess where they ended up going? Yup, right up the same path where I was going. Out of the miles of open beach, the only other people I saw went to the exact same place as me. I ended up having to wait by the water until I figured they were deep into the woods. I still got the video I wanted, but I had to shake my head. We’ll be filming early in the morning, so hopefully there won’t be any onlookers. With my luck, there will end up being a crowd just in that one spot.


10. For me, having lived on Cape Cod for so long, it’s incredibly rare to find an area that I am not familiar with. As luck would have it, the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary was one such place. Now, I have been there before, once, over 10 years ago. However, when I was there, I didn’t do much walking. I just found the first clearing I could and got a photo of the sunset. This time, I hiked nearly a mile out to the ocean. It was incredibly isolated. Loads of chipmunks and squirrels couldn’t have cared less about me walking by. I made it out to a boardwalk for sunset photography. It was well worth the walk. The part that made perfect sense for my life was that as I was approaching the ocean, I spotted a couple coming my way, headed back to the parking lot. The woman was a patient at my job. So I only saw two people my entire time at this spot, and one of them knew me. For anyone else, it would seem like a wild coincidence. For me, it was like ‘of course.’

The sunset at Wellfleet Bay.

11. I don’t know why this irks me so much, but it does. I created an account for Subway a long, long time ago. I do enjoy me some Subway. The info I entered as a profile is all the same as today, except for the fact that I had an AOL email address because it was like 15 years ago. For the last however many years, I haven’t used that AOL email; I use a Gmail account. I changed my account info on every single site I had a profile with to reflect the change of email. Subway will not allow you to change your email. These people will let me change my actual name and my phone number, but not my email. Their stupid app says your email is ‘how we know it’s you.’ How do you know it’s me? How about my friggin’ name and phone number? When I try to sign in, they send a confirmation code to my AOL email. The issue is I never use that email, so when I go there AOL then sends me a confirmation code to my Gmail. It’s so stupid. I have never heard of a company not allowing you to change your email. Well, I did what I had to do and deleted my account and then created a new one using the Gmail address, so the joke's on them. Or it’s on me since I went through all of this trouble for a sub shop.

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - The Cape's Drive-Ins

     The drive-in movie theater was at one time a staple of American life. Being able to enjoy a film on a large outdoor screen from the luxury of the inside of your car was a cherished memory for so many over several decades. Even though in 2020 there are only approximately 321 remaining there are still some classic drive-in theaters left in the country. On Cape Cod for so long the Wellfleet Drive-In was the last remaining vestige of a bygone era. However that changed in the summer of 2020 when the former Yarmouth Drive-In was brought back to life more than three decades after initially closing.

     The story of the drive-in is long and storied and intertwined with the Cape. Though there were drive-ins of a sort as far back as the 1910’s the first true, patented drive-in theater debuted on June 6, 1933. The first proper drive-in theater was the brainchild of Richard Hollingshead. He took the existing idea of watching silent films outdoors on screens and added the ability for the wildly popular automobile to become a part of it. Hollingshead opened his creation in Camden, New Jersey with a showing of the British comedy Wives Beware. Tickets cost 25 cents per person and also 25 cents per vehicle. The Camden Drive-In had a capacity of 400 cars and 600 people attended that first night’s showing.

The screen at the Camden Drive-In (Cinema Treasures.org)

     His investment of $30,000 ($595,000 in 2020) spawned a new industry that would sweep the nation. Though primitive in the beginning, including not having the individual speakers for cars, the drive-in slowly began to catch on. In January 1938 plans were discussed for a potential drive-in near the Barnstable Airport in Hyannis. These discussions were brief as the potential of such an attraction was not seen as being an asset to the Cape.

     By the end of the 1930’s there were 18 drive-ins located in America. These included four in Massachusetts in Weymouth, Lynn, Shrewsbury, and Methuen. In 1948 that number had leaped to 820 total theaters. It was around this time that the drive-in was finally seen as a worthwhile investment for Cape Cod.

     In May 1949 building contractor Louis Segrini of Mansfield, Massachusetts was granted a permit to build the first drive-in on Cape Cod. This drive-in would be far more than a place to watch movies in your car though. The 70 acre plot located on Hokum Rock Road in Dennis, near Rt. 134, was at the time the largest drive-in in New England. It had a capacity of 1,000 cars and would also become the first fly-in theater. This distinction came from the fact that small airplanes and helicopters could land on a strip near the back end of the grounds and taxi their way to spots to watch the movies from inside the plane. In addition to being the largest theater and a fly-in theater the Dennis Drive-In included a dance pavilion, bottle warming service for young mothers, refreshment stands, and even 20 nearby cottages to rent.

The Dennis Drive-In, 1949 (Cinema Treasures.org)

     Opening night was Saturday July 16, 1949. The theater played the color film Barkleys of Broadway featuring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It was a near sellout close to 1,000 cars. Rather than rest on his laurels Segrini parlayed the success of the Dennis Drive-In to a second theater planned for near the Mashpee Rotary in 1950. These plans never materialized. Cape Cod had to wait six years for a second drive-in to open.

     It was in the 1950’s that the drive-in hit its apex as an entertainment attraction. This was the case on Cape Cod as well. Herman Rifkin opened the Cod Drive-In in the Teaticket section of Falmouth in 1955. This was followed quickly by the Hyannis Drive-In on Rt. 132. The Yarmouth Drive-In on Rt. 28 followed in 1956 and finally the Wellfleet Drive-In was built on Rt. 6 in 1957. This brought the total to five drive-ins on Cape Cod. In 1958 the total number of theaters in the United States hit its high of 4,063.

The drive-in had continued success throughout the 1960’s and into the 1970’s. However the tide slowly began to turn. An increase in land values, the advent of VCR’s, and the fact that drive-in shows had to begin late with summer sunset times started to eat into business. By 1980 there were just over 2,000 drive-ins left. The 1980’s saw the virtual end of the industry on Cape Cod.

     It began in 1980 when the Cod Drive-In closed. The land just off of Rt. 28 was owned for years by the Augusta Family who own the abutting Falmouth Lumber. In the spring of 2003 a 23.7-acre parcel of the former drive-in land was purchased by the Town of Falmouth. As of 2020 though nothing has been done with that property.

     Next to close was the Dennis Drive-In in 1984. The property was to be turned into a housing subdivision however as of 2020 much of the property remains overgrown. Upon walking over the former grounds one can find chunks of asphalt, concrete, former speaker stands, and wire littered about.

The Wellfleet Drive-In, for decades the last one standing until 2020. (Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism)

     The Yarmouth Drive-In initially closed in 1985. Throughout the years many ideas were bandied about as to what should become of the 22-acre site. A river walk consisting of trails and boardwalks leading along Parker’s River out to Seagull Beach had potential yet never materialized. In July 2020 it was resurrected by Innovation Arts & Entertainment. The new Yarmouth Drive-In has been updated for the 21^st century with bright LED screens making daytime movies possible.

     In 1987 the Hyannis Drive-In became the fourth to close on the Cape in seven years. Though religious services took place on the grounds for a short time afterwards the property would eventually become home to Stop & Shop. It was also in 1987 where the total number of drive-ins dipped below 1,000 nationwide.

     The Wellfleet Drive-In for more than thirty years stood tall as the last beacon of a bygone era. It became a popular summer destination for those wishing for a slice of 1950’s nostalgia in a 21^st century world. As of 2020 it remains a perfect family night out during the summer.

     The drive-in theatre for a time was the place to see new movies. It became as much a part of pop culture of a bygone generation as the movies themselves did. Though their numbers massively dwindled as the decades passed the drive-in is not finished yet. In a time where social distancing is the new normal there is a potential for a comeback of some of these beloved old school icons.

    So what became of Richard Hollingshead’s original Camden Drive-In? Partially due to high movie rental costs and lower than expected crowds Hollingshead sold his theater less than three years after opening it to a man who ‘moved’ the business to Union, New Jersey. It did not reopen. The final insult came when Hollingshead’s company was sued in 1950 and lost his patent on some of the designs of the drive-in, the large rush of new theaters came shortly thereafter.

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My first eBook in 10 years, In Their Footsteps, featuring the interesting stories of Cape Cod's history, is on sale at Amazon.com. 

View my previous blog posts: In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - The Wellfleet Marconi Wireless Station

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Samuel de Champlain and Port Fortune

Photo Prints available here: Smug Mug.com

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

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - The Wellfleet Marconi Station

    On January 18, 1903 the first ever two-way wireless communication took place between President Theodore Roosevelt and England’s King Edward VII. It changed the landscape of communication forever and paved the way for radio and television to become a staple of life only a few decades later. The site for this historic milestone was not a big city. It was a remote section of beach in Wellfleet on Cape Cod. The man behind this newfound wonder was Guglielmo Marconi. This is the story of his wireless site that changed the world forever.

     Guglielmo Marconi was born in Bologna, Italy on April 25, 1874. He became a physicist and in 1894 first began experimenting with radio waves as a student at the Livorno Technical Institute in Rome. Basing his work on advancing the previous work of Henry Hertz and Oliver Lodge Marconi was able to develop a basic system of wireless telegraphy. From there he received his first patent in England in 1897.

The former pavilion at the Marconi Site from 2011

     After founding the England-based Marconi Telegraph Company in 1899 Marconi got started on perfecting his wireless telegraph. His first transmission traveled only a mile and a half but was a success. In March 1900 rumors circulated that perhaps a Marconi wireless station could be constructed on the Nantucket South Shoal Lightship.

     In order to assure a clear path between receivers Marconi looked for a companion site to his wireless station in Poldhu on England’s west coast. He found a perfect location in Wellfleet on Cape Cod. Plans for the construction of a wireless station at Wellfleet began in May 1901 with the money for the station being fronted by English capitalists and the work done by Boston contractors.

     The Wellfleet station was situated on eight acres of land, equipped with ten sets of two poles. Each pole stood nearly 100-feet tall and were set in a semi-circle fashion. The poles cost $2,900 ($88,000 in 2020) each to build. In June 1901 the long-rumored wireless station on the Nantucket Lightship was constructed, although this would only be connected to Sankaty Head Lighthouse approximately forty-eight miles away.

     Catastrophe came that November when the strongest storm in three years roared across Cape Cod. The Marconi station in Wellfleet was completely destroyed leaving vessels traveling between New York and Europe without the added aide.

Ironically it was only when the station was damaged by the storm that the people of Wellfleet discovered that it was owned by Guglielmo Marconi. It had been built in relative secrecy. Despite his great accomplishments in the field Marconi himself remained reserved, not wanting to seem boastful of how his invention was revolutionizing communication.

Guglielmo Marconi posing with his early wireless apparatus at the turn of the 20th century. (Smithsonian)

     In December 1901 a wireless station was built at Signal Hill in St. John’s, Newfoundland. This allowed Marconi to continue with his experiments with the technology while the Wellfleet station was being rebuilt. Signal Hill was about as close as North America could get to England being 900 miles closer to the Poldhu station than the Wellfleet location.

     It took more than a full year for the new wireless station to be finished in Wellfleet. In December 1902 it was completed with four 250-foot tall towers on a rectangular base replacing the original setup. Marconi himself arrived from Sydney, Australia to inspect the station marking the first time he had set foot on Cape Cod.

Not long after his arrival on the Cape Marconi and his assistant George S. Kemp got to work on what would be his greatest achievement to that point. The messages between the two world leaders was to be the grand reopening of the Marconi Wireless Station in Wellfleet. The Wellfleet station initially had the call letters CC (Cape Cod), this would change to MCC (Marconi Cape Cod), and finally to WCC when all eastern stations took the W prefix.

     As previously stated the date of January 19, 1903 was a landmark day in communication. It was on that date where the first two-way wireless conversation took place between President Theodore Roosevelt and King Edward VII.

     This accomplishment made it impossible for Guglielmo Marconi to remain in the shadows of success any longer. Within a week of the transatlantic conversation reporters from the leading newspapers and magazines of Boston and New York descended upon Wellfleet for a chance to find out about the man behind the invention. Marconi had high hopes of securing the rights to wireless communication basically everywhere in the world. He was referred to in some newspapers as a ‘wizard’ and his achievements were seen as more impressive by the fact that he was not even twenty-nine years old yet. Just as the fervor around the young inventor reached a fevered pitch Marconi left Cape Cod and returned to England by way of New York. He would return often to Cape Cod however.

     Marconi’s goal of commercializing wireless communication came true in September 1907. The messages were sent at a rate of twenty words per minute with the cost ranging from 10 cents a word for regular messages ($2.74 in 2020), and 5 cents a word for press related messages ($1.37 in 2020). In 1909 Marconi received the Nobel Prize for Physics sharing the prize with fellow wireless communication pioneer German physicist Karl Ferdinand Braun.

     A second wireless station was built by Marconi in Chatham overlooking Ryder’s Cove in 1914. The site was chosen for its relative isolation and was built for a total cost of $300,000 ($7.7 million in 2020). In 1920 the station became part of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). It inherited the WCC call letters and became the busiest ship-to-shore station during much of the 20^th century.

A postcard of the Wellfleet Marconi Site from 1905.

     When World War I came knocking for America the United States Navy took possession of the Wellfleet station as well as the Chatham site. In April 1917 the Wellfleet site fell under the command of J.W. Mullins, the chief electrician of the Navy. This proved to be the beginning of the end for the wireless station on the Outer Cape. After the war ended the station closed. The writing was on the wall from nature as well.

     The bluffs along the Outer Cape have been ravaged by erosion for many decades. Even a century ago the cliffs rapidly eroding to the point that the concrete bases closest to them were already being compromised before the station’s official closing. Despite rumors of the station possibly reopening late in 1919 nothing came to fruition. The closure of the Wellfleet Marconi station was a mixed blessing for the residents of the town. They were not completely upset with its demise due to the fact that while in operation the sparking of 30,000 watts supplied by the three-foot rotor could be heard up to four miles away.

     Guglielmo Marconi continued his research and experiments with wireless technology throughout the remainder of his life. Some later achievements included a mean system for long distance communication and experimentation with microwaves and the principles for developing radar. He received numerous honorary degrees and awards during his lifetime. After a few years of declining health Marconi died in Rome, Italy from a series of heart attacks on July 20, 1937 at the age of 63.

     His Wellfleet wireless station site would be wiped off the map entirely over time. It was dismantled in 1920. Between 1902 and 1972 the bluff in front of the station eroded 170 feet. Two of the concrete bases for the towers eventually fell to the sea. Camp Wellfleet was constructed on the grounds in 1942 and remained there until 1961 when after it was deemed unnecessary it became a part of the new Cape Cod National Seashore.

     In 1953 a plaque commemorating the conversation between Roosevelt and King Edward from 1903 was placed at the site. A shelter was constructed in 1974 housing a scale replica of the wireless site along with a bronze bust of Guglielmo Marconi. The beach below the cliffs was named Marconi Beach for the inventor.

An exposed base from the Marconi Wireless Site in 2011

     In a final piece of irony the eroding cliffs claimed the replica of the station as well. In July 2013 the replica and bust were removed and the shelter demolished. Incredibly only a short time before this a pair of the original concrete bases were exposed at the beach below. Sadly today the only remains of the original Marconi wireless station are bits of wood and brick gathered neatly in an area close to the eroding cliffs. Someday those will have to be removed as well.

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View my previous blog posts: In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - The Great Colonial Hurricane

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Samuel de Champlain and Port Fortune

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In My Footsteps: 4K Cape Cod - Great Island, Wellfleet

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Billingsgate Island

     Time gives and time takes away. Throughout history people, places, and things arrive and disappear, some lost to history. This is no different on Cape Cod. When driving along the main streets and back roads longtime residents often remark of what used to be where and who used to live there. Losing a building is common, but an entire community? That is something far more rare. It happened 150 years ago in Provincetown at Long Point when the majority of the settlement was floated across the harbor to make up some of the homes along Commercial and Bradford Streets. However Long Point itself still exists. Another community was lost to time about a century ago. This was different. This was nature reclaiming the land it stood on. Shoreline change and erosion is nothing new. This is the story of Cape Cod’s ‘Atlantis.’ This is the story of Billingsgate Island.

     Today Billingsgate is a shoal, and a footnote in Cape Cod history. For many decades though it was a bustling community. Located approximately three miles west of Eastham's Sunken Meadow Beach, just south of Jeremy Point, sat Billingsgate Island. At its peak size the island encompassed roughly 60 acres of land. For comparison the small island of Muskeget, just off of Nantucket, is roughly 292 acres in size and just over a mile across at its widest. Noted by the Pilgrims on their journey from Provincetown to Plymouth its first known European inhabitants were Mayflower passenger Constance Hopkins and her husband Nicholas Snow in the 1640’s.

     During the first quarter of the 18^th century Billingsgate, along with neighboring Great Island, were made the headquarters of the fishing and whaling industry in the area. In 1721 Billingsgate was designated a parish and officially the North Precinct of Eastham. At the time there were many complaints by the people of mainland Eastham about fishermen and whalers sneaking to the town commons and cutting down trees to be used on the island. Billingsgate became part of the new town of Wellfleet when it separated itself from Eastham in May 1763.

     The peak of Billingsgate was the mid-19^th century. It was a prosperous fishing village which would be inhabited during the warmer months by as many as 80 people. The population of the island began to grow in 1821 when a salt works was constructed and in 1822 when the Federal government bought four acres of land for $100 ($2,200 in 2020) upon which a lighthouse was built. The first keeper was William Moore and he would remain on the island year-round, sometimes alone for months at a time in winter. In the decades following the construction of the lighthouse the island would grow to include thirty homes, a schoolhouse, a store, oil works, and a baseball team which would row across the bay to play other teams from the Outer Cape. It was a paradise out of a storybook.

     However, not too long after the lighthouse was built it became apparent that something was happening to the island. The same erosion which batters the coastline today was slowly chipping away at Billingsgate. As early as 1850, in a report by then-lighthouse keeper Francis Krogman, it was noted that the island was ‘washing away very fast.’ An 1854 storm damaged the lighthouse so badly that $14,000 ($426,000 in 2020) was appropriated for the construction of a new one, located further to the north on higher ground, which was completed in September 1858.

1871 Map of Cape Cod with Billingsgate Island circled
(National Public Domain Archives)

     In 1863 it was noted that at high tide the island stood only 13-feet above sea level. With one eye on the booming fishing and whaling industries and the other on the creeping erosion the community would continue to thrive into the latter half of the 19^th century. The eroding shores created dangerous shoals around Billingsgate, leading to several ships running aground. This included the schooner S & E Corson from Philadelphia which sunk in April 1879 with its cargo of coal. In 1888, with erosion threatening the lighthouse, a 1,000-foot sea wall and bulkhead was constructed to try to buy some time. It ended up doing the opposite and speeding up the erosion.

     Slowly but surely the fishermen and their families left Billingsgate. The homes would be taken down and floated across the bay to be resurrected in the towns along the Outer Cape. The twenty-by-twenty-foot schoolhouse would be taken down around the turn of the 20^th century when only about six families remained on the island. Despite the mass exodus some still saw Billingsgate as an attractive destination. This included Dr. Maurice Richardson of Boston who paid a total of $785 ($24,400 in 2020) for two lots on the island and built a summer home there in 1897.

Billingsgate Lighthouse circa 1897
(Lighthouse Friends.com)

     The 20^th century saw the demise of Billingsgate Island. A 600-foot breakwater built in 1905 failed to stem the tide. The homes which had dotted the land had been moved, only oyster shacks and hunting camps remained. The lighthouse would crumble in a storm on the day after Christmas in 1915 and be replaced by a skeleton light fixture on a tripod. Around this same time, after his death, the summer home of Dr. Richardson was taken down. The last keeper of the light, Henry Daniels, would spend three nearly-uninterrupted years on the disappearing land mass at the same time guarding the valuable oyster beds from 1917-1920. The island remained a haven for shellfishing, but these were mostly day-trips from the mainland as it shrunk to a mere 5 acres by the 1920’s.

     The natural process of erosion never ceases and in December 1932 the skeleton lighthouse had fallen due to the high tides. It was replaced by a lighted bell buoy. The breakwater was dismantled in 1935 to be used for repair work at Wellfleet Harbor. In 1942 the tides would submerge the entire island for the first time, officially ending Billingsgate Island and creating Billingsgate Shoal. In the years after its loss fishermen asked for a new lighthouse to be built at the tip of Jeremy Point to aide in navigation, however that never occurred.

Present-day coordinated of where Billingsgate Lighthouse stood circa 1853
(Google Maps)

     Today Cape Cod’s ‘Atlantis’ still lives on in photographs, the homes which are dotted around Wellfleet and surrounding areas, artifacts, and writings about the island including from Henry David Thoreau in his Cape Cod book. The shoal is frequently visible at low tide making it a popular picnicking spot. If one is lucky they may even stumble upon a brick from the old lighthouse’s foundation. It is impossible to step foot on the sandy shoal of what was once a thriving community and not take a moment to think about the power of the sea. It is impossible not to think of all that once stood there and remember to enjoy each and every day because at some point it could all be but a memory, much like Billingsgate Island.

In My Footsteps: Cape Cod - Bound Brook Island

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In My Footsteps: Trip 46: Wellfleet, Mass. - Part Two

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In My Footsteps

Christopher Setterlund

Trip 46: Wellfleet, Mass. – Part Two

April 28, 2010

            My second journey through Wellfleet had just as much to do with what was there as with what used to be there.  Wellfleet is the setting of two of the most fascinating Cape Cod legends.  Neither the Chequesset Inn nor Billingsgate Island still exist but their presence is still felt all over this town.  

 

-->           Billingsgate Island, now known as Billingsgate Shoal, is an article in and of itself.  I first became acquainted with this Cape Cod legend while at 4 C’s.  In my research for an article on erosion I came across this one-time small island community located a mile south of Jeremy Point.  At its peak in the 17^th century Billingsgate Island was approximately sixty acres in size.  At one point in the mid-1800’s the island had thirty homes, a schoolhouse, a lighthouse(left), and even a baseball team.  The lighthouse was originally built in 1822 and was rebuilt twice before finally being destroyed due to erosion in 1915.

          

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           The erosion of the island was exacerbated by the fact that the inhabitants removed the trees holding the land together and allowed their livestock to graze on the land removing much of the beach grass.  After the island was virtually deserted around the time of World War I due to the extensive erosion many of the structures were floated off the island and reestablished in Wellfleet, Brewster, and West Barnstable.  Today all that remains of Billingsgate Island is a large sandbar at low tide with pieces of the lighthouse foundation and a scattering of bricks still to be found. 

 

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Billingsgate’s remains are accessible at low tide and the area is large enough for shellfishing and picnicking, but that’s about it.  The legend of this once thriving island community still lives throughout Wellfleet as many of the island’s homes ended up here.  It is said that Holbrook Avenue near Wellfleet Harbor is one hotspot for finding former Billingsgate homes.  Although in my research I found out that many of the homes on Holbrook are from Bound Brook Island near Wellfleet as well.  The guessing is half the fun.  The only spot that I know for certain once resided on Billingsgate Island now exists as part of the Wicked Oyster restaurant at 50 Main Street in Wellfleet as it is mentioned in its history.  

 

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The Chequesset Inn(right, above) has a history as rich as Billingsgate.  It was an incredible luxury resort built in 1902 on the 400-foot Mercantile Wharf that was comprised of sixty-two rooms.  The resort helped make Wellfleet a huge tourist destination but the rough waters of the harbor ended up claiming the Chequesset Inn in 1934.  A cold winter filled the harbor with ice and these chunks ravaged the pier’s pilings until the Mercantile Wharf collapsed during one particular winter storm.  The Inn was taken down shortly thereafter as was the pier.  There is a marker on the curve of Kendrick Avenue designating where the Mercantile Wharf jutted out into the harbor.  To the east is Mayo Beach and to the west of the marker are the Wellfleeter Condos, it is a very awe-inspiring feeling to stand at the edge of the water knowing what used to be there seventy-five years ago(right, below).  At low tide it is still possible to see the tops of what remains of the pilings that once made up Mercantile Wharf.

 

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            Mayo Beach, located next to Wellfleet Harbor, is a great beach with several great views.  To the east is the harbor while the Wellfleet Breakwater Beach is to the southeast and Jeremy Point and Great Island stretch out to the southwest; it is easy to become mesmerized by this unique area of Cape Cod.  There is another great spot to check out along Mayo Beach when you look inward away from the water. 

The parking lot is a sort of semi-circle of asphalt and in the middle is a grassy area containing a very old oyster shack(left).  The eight by ten cedar shack, built in 1935, once belonged to a man named Earle Rich and was moved to Mayo Beach in November.  It had originated along Duck Creek’s railroad bridge since back then oysters were sent to Boston and New York by train.  It is a great piece of Cape Cod history that is very accessible; these shacks once covered the shores along most of the Cape as little as sixty years ago.

 

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The Wellfleet Town Pier is a great spot to have lunch and just watch the fishermen and average boaters come in and out of the harbor.  Holbrook Avenue, the supposed resting place of many Billingsgate Island homes sits only a few hundred yards north for some perspective.  It is incredible for me to imagine how the actual lay of the land along the harbor has remained basically the same over the past hundred years and yet how much it has changed.

            Only a hundred years ago there was a huge resort stretching out into the water and Billingsgate Island still existed, although it was only inhabited by a lighthouse keeper and a few brave souls that spent days at a time alone shellfishing.  What happened to the Chequesset Inn and Billingsgate is a prime example of the fury of the sea.  It is possible that thousands of years from now people will be speaking of Cape Cod in the same way I am speaking of Billingsgate now; a once thriving community that the ocean reclaimed.

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The histories of these two Cape legends can be found at the Wellfleet Historical Society, the Nickerson Room at Cape Cod Community College, along with the Wellfleet book in the Images of America series.  These stories are fascinating, and not that well known with all of the hundreds of other more famous stories in Cape Cod history.  I highly recommend visiting Wellfleet and taking a look at where the Chequesset Inn once stood.  Or, if you are truly adventurous you could sail out to Billingsgate Shoal and stand where a once thriving community once stood.  That is definitely on my agenda at some point in the future.  Have fun and happy traveling!

     My first book, In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod Travel Guide, is now available at SchifferBooks.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and Amazon.com, soon to be in stores everywhere!  Follow me on Twitter!

Directions: Mayo Beach: From Rt. 6 heading north turn left onto Main Street.  Turn left at E. Commercial Street, continue onto Commercial Street, continue onto Kendrick Avenue.  Mayo Beach is on the left.  The marker for Chequesset Inn is on the curve next to Wellfleeter Condos.

References:  Wellfleet Historical Society

            A Story of Billingsgate Island

            History of Billingsgate Lighthouse

            The Wicked Oyster Restaurant

Billingsgate Light photo found here: Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Chequesset Inn photo found here:  Google Books: Wellfleet: A Cape Cod Village

South Wellfleet on Dwellable