Long Point (Cape Cod)

A fisherman named John Atwood built the first house on Long Point in 1818. He was followed by Prince Freeman, and next by Eldridge Smith. Others soon followed in increasing numbers, and in 1822, Prince Freeman, Jr. became the first child born on "The Point", as it was called by the locals.{{sfnp|Jennings|1890|p=76}}

The initial lure that attracted so many fishermen to this area was its proximity to prime fishing grounds, and the amount of fish that could be caught from the shore. Using sweep seines (that were hand-knit by their wives), fishermen caught an abundance of mackerel, shad and bass from shore. There are reports of up to seventy-five {{convert|200|lb|kg|adj=on}} barrels of white shad caught in one haul, fetching $16 per barrel{{sfnp|Jennings|1890|p=78}} – accounting for inflation, that single haul netted roughly ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|1200|1854|r=-2}}}} in today's dollars.{{Inflation-fn|US}}

By an act of Congress on May 18, 1826, the government earmarked $2,500 (roughly ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|2500|1826|r=-3}}}} today{{Inflation-fn|US}}) to acquire four acres at the extreme tip of the point, and to construct a lighthouse, which was completed in 1827.{{cite web|title=Long Point, MA|url=http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=490|publisher=lighthousefriends.com|access-date=August 25, 2012}} By 1830, the lighthouse became the site of Long Point's first school, starting with only three children.{{sfnp|Jennings|1890|p=78}} The Long Point community continued to grow, and by 1846, the Town of Provincetown voted to build a schoolhouse on Long Point. By then, the village was home to 38 fishing families, with nearly 200 adults and 60 children. In describing the experience of living on Long Point in the early 1800s, one author wrote:

{{blockquote|It was an exciting neighborhood to live in. Children who might have been afraid of dogs elsewhere, here ran from the sharks.|Josef Berger, Cape Cod Pilot (1937){{cite book|last=Berger |first=Josef |author-link=Josef Berger (speechwriter)|title=Cape Cod pilot: Federal writers' project, Works progress administration for the state of Massachusetts |year=1937 |publisher=Modern Pilgrim Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_ud4AAAAMAAJ&q=%22Children+who+might+have+been+afraid+of+dogs+elsewhere,+here+ran+from+the+sharks.%22|access-date=14 May 2012|page=262}}}}

File:1836 Provincetown Long Point US Topo Bureau.jpg

File:Provincetown windmill stereoscope.jpg view of a 19th-Century windmill, just one of the dozens that once dotted Provincetown's shoreline]]

The village had its own post office, a bakery, boat landings for 20 cod-fishing vessels, breakwaters, and several saltworks with nine windmills that were used to pump seawater into about {{convert|7000|or|8000|ft|m}} of drying pans.{{sfnp|Jennings|1890|p=76}}{{cite news|title=To Fellows and Friends Afar and Abroad...|url=http://www.provincetownhistoryproject.com/archives/2042|access-date=April 13, 2020|newspaper=The Provincetown Advocate|date=July 28, 1943}} With low costs and an endless supply of raw materials, the collection of sea salt was extremely profitable in the first part of the 19th century.{{cite book|last=Paine-Smith|first=Nancy W.|title=The Provincetown Book|year=1922|publisher=Tolman Print, Inc.|location=Brockton, MA |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9NEMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA51 |page=51 }} Not only was salt shipped out for domestic consumption, but it was also used to supply the fishing industry, which dried and salted the catch to preserve the fish for shipment. The annual output of the saltworks on Long Point reached "five to six hundred hogsheads", or {{convert|280000|–|336000|lb|MT|abbr=off}}, "of extra quality salt."{{cite book|last=Goode|first=George Brown|title=The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oegyAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA210|access-date=May 22, 2013|year=1887|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|location=Washington, D.C.|page=210|chapter= Section II - A Geographical Review of the Fisheries Industries and Fishing Communities for the Year 1880|quote=It is sold by the hogshead, holding 8 bushels, or 560 pounds, of salt.}} That represented just under 10% of Provincetown's total annual salt production of {{convert|3.4|e6lb|MT|abbr=off}}.

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Production of salt did not retain its lucrative luster for long, however, for downward price pressures had hit that industry from several angles. For one, the completion of the Erie Canal in 1830 meant a sharp increase in competition from companies that were mining massive salt deposits in Syracuse, New York.{{cite web|url=http://www.ilovethefingerlakes.com/basics/geology-saltmines.htm |title=Salt Mines and Brine Wells in the Finger Lakes|access-date=November 10, 2010 |publisher=ILovetheFingerLakes.com|year=2010 |quote= The building of the Erie Canal allowed the bulky and low-priced Syracuse salt to be transported to Chicago and beyond relatively quickly and inexpensively by way of the Great Lakes. Although the Erie Canal was known by many names, those in Syracuse called it 'the ditch that salt built.{{'-}}}} Local competition had increased as well – by 1837, Provincetown had 78 saltworks, and the selling price had fallen from a high of eight dollars per bushel at the turn of the nineteenth century, down to only one dollar.{{sfnp|Paine-Smith|1922|p=51}} Around that same time, demand for salt-cured fish began to decline, yielding to a growing consumer preference for ice harvesting and storage. John Atwood Jr., the son of Long Point's founder, boasted that "In 1848 I brought the first mackerel ever received on ice to Boston. It was August. I took them in the sloop smack American Eagle." He later pioneered the use of a jib topsail to shorten his time-to-market, so as to meet the growing appetite for fresh-caught fish.{{cite news|last=Guadazno|first=Laurel|title=History Highlights: John Atwood's 'Pilgrimage of a Pilgrim' |url=http://provincetownbanner.com/article/history_article/_/26575/History/4/10/2003 |access-date=May 21, 2012 |newspaper=Provincetown Banner |date=April 10, 2003}}

File:Provincetown before after railroad.png isolated Provincetown from other towns (top), until the railroad arrived in 1873]]

Living on Long Point presented its own share of challenges as well. The geography of Provincetown as a whole made for an isolating existence throughout most of its history, as the town was essentially cut off, not just from the mainland, but in many ways, even from neighboring towns on Cape Cod. The town was surrounded by water in every direction:{{cite map |publisher=Bureau of U.S. Topographical Engineers |title=A map of the extremity Of Cape Cod including the Townships of Provincetown & Truro: with a chart of their sea coast and of Cape Cod Harbour, State of Massachusetts |url=http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~226232~5505141%3b-Composite-of--A-Map-Of-The-Extremi# |year=1836 |cartography=U.S. Topographical Engineers, under direction of Maj. J.D. Graham; Reduced from orig. by Washington Hood |scale=1 : 10,560 |access-date=June 2, 2012}}

:* Atlantic Ocean, to the north

:* Massachusetts Bay to the northwest

:* Cape Cod Bay to the west and southwest

:* Provincetown Harbor to the south and southeast

:* East Harbor and a salt marsh to the east

Until late in the 19th century, there was not a single road leading in or out of Provincetown – the only way to travel by land to the rest of Cape Cod was to first head north, traversing a series of tall, rolling sand dunes, and to then follow the thin strip of beach along the northern shore line, known as the "backshore". A wooden bridge was erected over the East Harbor in 1854, only to be destroyed by a winter storm and ice two years later.{{sfnp|Jennings|1890|p=197}} Although the bridge was replaced the following year, a traveler using it still had to traverse several miles over a sand route, which, together with the backshore route, would occasionally be washed out by storms. Prior to the railroad's arrival in 1873, Provincetown was like an island, in that it relied almost entirely upon the sea for its communication, travel, and commerce needs.{{cite web|last=Theriault|first=Wor. James J.|title=The Railroad Comes To Provincetown|url=http://www.kinghiramslodge.org/railroad.html|publisher=King Hirams's Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons|access-date=May 2, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160404063954/http://www.kinghiramslodge.org/railroad.html|archive-date=April 4, 2016|url-status=dead}} All of this was doubly true of Long Point, being isolated from its own nearest neighbor, the rest of the town of Provincetown. To reach the closest edge of town from Long Point by land, one had to make a difficult trek across a {{convert|3|mi|km|adj=on}} beach route past Wood End to Herring Cove, and then another mile ({{convert|1|mi|km|abbr=on|disp=output only}}) over continuously shifting sand dunes. To complicate matters, portions of that route were underwater twice each day with the high tide.{{sfnp|Paine-Smith|1922|p=37}}

Although salt was plentiful, there was no source of fresh water on Long Point. Plank cisterns were built throughout the village to collect and store rain water for daily use.{{cite web |title=Historical Timeline of Provincetown, Massachusetts|url=http://www.provincetown-ma.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/874 |publisher=Town of Provincetown|access-date=May 1, 2012 |format=PDF}} During periods of drought, barrels of water had to be filled up in Provincetown, and then transported over to the point.{{sfnp|Jennings|1890|p=78}}

Beyond the challenges imposed by the occasional drought, however, the residents of Long Point came to recognize the potential for a much greater natural force – one that threatened to impact them with little advance warning. While Long Point provides a natural barrier to protect Provincetown and its harbor from many storm hazards, the point bears the brunt of such a storm when it does so:

{{blockquote|This sickle of sand which encloses one of the finest harbors on the North Atlantic was so narrow that encroaching storms played havoc with it and threatened at one time to sweep the narrow point away. It was too valuable a harbor to be destroyed and the government took it over.|Mary Heaton Vorse, Time and the town: a Provincetown chronicle (1942){{cite book|last=Vorse|first=Mary Heaton|title=Time and the town: a Provincetown chronicle|year=1942|publisher=Rutgers University Press|location=New Brunswick, N.J.|edition=reprint, illustrated|author-link=Mary Heaton Vorse|editor=A. Heller, J. O'Brien |access-date=14 May 2012|page=87 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=9LdYIDpDQRAC&pg=PA87 |isbn=9780813517520}}}}

File:Ptown Floater Plaque.jpg

Sources differ and remain unclear as to the specific reasons for leaving Long Point; it is also unclear whether there was a triggering event which caused a wholesale departure, or whether there was instead a more orderly migration. Sources all agree, however, that beginning in the 1850s, families began to leave Long Point and return to the main town. Most of the families took their houses with them when they left Long Point – the local Deacon's specialty was moving buildings, and the houses, about 30 in all, were placed on rafts and floated across Provincetown Harbor to the town's West End.{{sfnp|Jennings|1890|pp=78–79}}{{cite news |title=Old resident dies, born on Point (Obituary of Angelia Freeman Nickerson) |url=http://capecodhistory.us/genealogy//getperson.php?personID=I27230&tree=Nauset |access-date=May 14, 2012 |newspaper=Provincetown Advocate |date=March 12, 1942 |quote=Mrs. Nickerson was born, lived her girlhood years and received her early education in the Long Point village which was once a small but flourishing fishing hamlet on what is now the barren hook of the end of Cape Cod. The large, barn-like school and the 30 or so houses were later moved across the bay to Provincetown where they still stand and serve.}} "They say that so gently were these houses eased off that the moving didn't interfere with the housewife cooking her dinner," wrote Mary Heaton Vorse.{{sfnp|Vorse|1942|p=88}} By the time of the American Civil War (1861–1865), only two houses were left on Long Point.{{sfnp|Jennings|1890|p=78}}

A 1942 article in the Cape Cod Standard Times tells the following variation of the story:{{cite news|title=Provincetown saga related: Town once had two communities now long dead|url=http://www.provincetownhistoryproject.com/archives/1965|access-date=April 13, 2020|newspaper=Cape Cod Standard Times|date=February 23, 1942}}

{{blockquote|Perhaps the inhabitants grew tired of sharks sunning themselves on their front lawns, perhaps sea creatures carried off their pet dogs and cats; whatever the reason the citizens of Long Point scheduled a colossal moving day. The women packed the household possessions in dories, while the men floated the houses and public buildings across a mile of water on casks. And that was the end of the community of Long Point.}}

File:Provincetown Floater House 1890.png

Many of those historic "floater homes", as they came to be called, are still standing in Provincetown's West End, and can be identified by a distinctive blue and white plaque that indicates the home's historic journey.{{cite news|last=Gehrman|first=Elizabeth|title=Solitude, sunscreen, and a long stretch of sand (almost) all to yourself|url=http://archive.boston.com/travel/explorene/massachusetts/articles/2007/08/05/solitude_sunscreen_and_a_long_stretch_of_sand_almost_all_to_yourself/?page=full|access-date=April 13, 2020|newspaper=The Boston Globe|date=August 5, 2007}} The schoolhouse was among the last buildings to leave Long Point; it was moved to Commercial Street in the center of town.{{sfnp|Jennings|1890|p=42}}

During the War of 1812, the British navy had controlled Provincetown Harbor. Seeking to correct the lack of fortifications, the U.S. Army surveyed the harbor from 1833 to 1835, and noted that "the point had a large civilian population". The Army returned to build the planned Long Point Battery during the American Civil War. Army documents state that:

{{blockquote|the point ... was deserted by the time construction of two earthwork [artillery] batteries began in early 1863. Construction was completed in December of 1863. The outer battery consisted of three {{convert|32|lb|kg|adj=on|disp=x| [|]}} guns and a built-in powder magazine. The inner battery, connected to the outer battery by a {{convert|1,650|ft|m|adj=on|disp=x| [|]}} wooden walkway, consisted of six {{convert|32|lb|kg|adj=on|disp=x| [|]}} guns and two built-in magazines. A barracks for quartering a company of soldiers, an officer's quarters, and stables were constructed south of the inner battery.}}

File:Long Point Battery 1865 Army Corps Engrs.png

The batteries were designed by and built under the supervision of Major Charles E. Blunt of the United States Army Corps of Engineers.{{cite magazine |last=Manuel |first=Dale A. |date=Summer 2019 |title=Major C.E. Blunt's Other Civil War Forts |magazine=Coast Defense Journal |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=49–55 |location=Mclean, Virginia |publisher=CDSG Press }} The Army, however, did not actually "construct" the officer's quarters – instead, the company's three officers were headquartered in the last remaining house from the earlier village.{{sfnp|Jennings|1890|p=79}} On March 5, 1864, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ceded "an indefinite area (approximately 150 acres)" of Long Point to the United States Government.{{cite web|url=http://naelibrary.nae.usace.army.mil/dp192/nae97051.pdf |title=Conclusions and Recommendations for the former Long Point Battery, Provincetown, MA; Project Number D01MA054901 |publisher=US Army Corps of Engineers |work=Defense Environmental Restoration Program for Formerly Used Defense Sites Ordnance and Explosive Waste |access-date=May 25, 2012 |date=January 1997 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040308064635/http://naelibrary.nae.usace.army.mil/dp192/nae97051.pdf |archive-date=March 8, 2004 }} The new barracks housed a company of 98 enlisted soldiers from the Unattached Companies of Massachusetts Volunteer Militia. The 12th Unattached Company, which had been detached from an existing regiment of the Massachusetts Militia, at first served a 90-day tour of duty at the post from May through August 1864.{{cite book|last=Higginson|first=Thomas Wentworth (State Historian)|title=Massachusetts in the Army and Navy During the War of 1861-65, Vol. I|year=1896|publisher=Wright and Potter Printing Co, State Printers|location=Boston, MA |page=321 }} Most of the men reenlisted for another 100-day tour, this time as the 21st Unattached Company from August through November. In November 1864, they enlisted once again for a full year, but they were mustered out at the end of June 1865, as the war had come to an end.{{sfnp|Higginson|1896|p=325}} The enlisted barracks was floated across the harbor postwar, and still exists as 473 Commercial Street in Provincetown.{{sfnp|Manuel|2019|p=55}}{{cite web|last=Payette|first=Pete |title=Provincetown Batteries |url=https://www.northamericanforts.com/East/masouth.html#province |publisher=American Forts Network |access-date=June 27, 2020}}

The batteries on Long Point remained operational until the post was abandoned in 1872, but they were never used in combat. In the years following the war, the people of Provincetown, aware that they were protected against an enemy that would never materialize, soon labelled the batteries "Fort Useless" and "Fort Ridiculous". The earthworks of the batteries remain, eroded down to sand dunes.{{sfnp|Manuel|2019|p=55}}

File:Cape Cod Oil Works 1891.jpg

File:Provincetown Breakwater.jpg on horizon (above man's head); Long Point Light is {{convert|1.5|mi|km}} to the left (not shown)]]

In 1873, a lighthouse inspection revealed that the original wooden light – whose unique architectural design came to be known as a "Cape Cod style lighthouse" – had deteriorated to such a poor condition that it might be destroyed by a strong storm. In 1875, that light was replaced with the brick tower that stands today.{{cite web |title=Long Point Light |url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/maritime/lpt.htm

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081123001921/http://www.nps.gov/nr//travel/maritime/lpt.htm

|url-status=dead

|archive-date=November 23, 2008

|work=Maritime History of Massachusetts, a National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=March 4, 2012}}

Even though the Army had moved out, they retained title to the land. Nevertheless, at around the same time that the lighthouse was rebuilt, the Cape Cod Oil Works built a cod fish oil and whale oil factory in the area that had been the barracks. As the land was still a military reservation, the Army tried to have the factory removed a number of times in the ensuing years. Records from this period are scarce, but Army archives indicate that the factory was still operating in the middle of 1883 – another source from 1890 states that "John Atwood built a wharf on the north side of the point, which is standing to-day, used by the Cape Cod Oil Works, the only buildings now left excepting the lighthouse."{{sfnp|Jennings|1890|p=78}} The exact date of the factory's closing is unknown, but official Army correspondence in 1917 makes no mention of it. The only known photograph of the factory, taken in 1891 and retrieved from the National Archives and Records Administration is inscribed with the words "Condemned ... 1919".{{cite web |title=Cape Cod Oil Works opposite Provincetown (photograph) |url=http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/fish6914.htm |author=Claesson, Stefan (Archival Photographer) |publisher=National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration & Fish and Wildlife Service, courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration |work=United States Fisheries Heritage Digital Collection |year=1891}}

File:Long Point Lighthouse Provincetown.JPG

An oil house was built in 1904, in order to properly store the flammable materials used to illuminate the light. Aside from the lighthouse and the oil house, no other structure has survived to the present day. The mound of earth that formed the foundation of the outer battery appears as none other than a sand dune{{cite web|last=Trapani|first=Bob Jr.|title=Remnants of "Fort Useless" Adds to the Historical Significance of Long Point Light|url=http://www.lighthousefoundation.org/alf_lights/longpoint/fort_useless.htm|publisher=American Lighthouse Foundation|access-date=May 26, 2012}} With photos. – no other hint of the early settlement, the military post, nor the oil factory can be found on Long Point today.

One cultural artifact that is now visible atop the earthworks of the outer battery is a cross that honors the memory of Staff Sgt. Charles Darby – "an unsung soldier who loved the dunes". Darby was killed in action over the Netherlands in 1944.{{cite book|last=McLaughlin|first=Jerome|title=D-Day + 60 Years: A Small Piece of History|year=2004|publisher=AuthorHouse|location=Bloomington|isbn=9781418402686|page=A31–A32|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZCDPv0R0LaAC&pg=RA1-PA31 }}

The image below shows the layout of the houses, stores and saltworks on Long Point as they existed in 1857. Clicking the image will lead not only to a larger image, but also to a legend key to the numbers. That list, which includes the names of each home/store owner, gives one a good sense of the extent of the community at that time.{{sfnp|Paine-Smith|1922|pp=34–37}}

{{Wide image|Long Point Provincetown Paine-Smith 1922.png|700px|The layout of Long Point in 1857. Click the image for larger view, plus a detailed key to the numbers.|left|alt=A hand-drawn map of Long Point, with numbered dots scattered about. }}

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File:Long Point CACO Map.png | Present-day map of Long Point, from the National Park Service.

File:Long Point Light--Original built 1827.jpg |The original lighthouse and keeper's house. Note the three small children seated in front.

File:1889 USGS Long Point Provincetown.jpg|1889 map shows buildings at Long Point and Wood End, despite being replaced by Long Point Battery in 1864.{{cite map|publisher=United States Geological Survey|title=Massachusetts: Provincetown Sheet|url=http://ims.er.usgs.gov/gda_services/download?item_id=5635853&quad=Provincetown&state=MA&grid=15X15&series=Map%20GeoPDF|date=July 1889|orig-year=Surveyed 1887|cartography=Henry Gannett (Chief Geographer) and Marcus Baker (Geographer-in-Charge)|scale=1 : 62,500|format=PDF|access-date=23 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130408120017/http://ims.er.usgs.gov/gda_services/download?item_id=5635853&quad=Provincetown&state=MA&grid=15X15&series=Map%20GeoPDF|archive-date=8 April 2013|url-status=dead}}

• List of military installations in Massachusetts

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• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp4uC8tnqeo Aerial drone view of Long Point] on YouTube

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Category:1818 establishments in Massachusetts

Category:Cape Cod National Seashore

Category:Ghost towns in Massachusetts

Category:History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts

Category:Landforms of Barnstable County, Massachusetts

Category:Peninsulas of Massachusetts

Category:Populated coastal places in Massachusetts

Category:Populated places established in 1818

Category:Provincetown, Massachusetts

Category:Villages in Barnstable County, Massachusetts

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