The Cape Cod National Seashore was established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy. The protected seashore encompasses 44,000 acres of forest, marshland, bogs and salt ponds along with a 40 mile stretch of pristine beach from Chatham to Provincetown.
Within this National Park is the 3,000-acre Province Lands Reservation in Provincetown. This area is hailed as the second-oldest common lands in the country, second only to Boston Common.
Producer Dave Fraser takes us on a tour of this unique area of Cape Cod.
Watch more of our series on the Cape Cod National Seashore.
Read the full transcript:
Zydalis Bauer, Connecting Point: The Cape Cod National Seashore was established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy. The protected seashore encompasses 44,000 acres of forest marshland, bogs, and salt ponds along with a 40 mile stretch of pristine beach from Chatham to Provincetown.
Within this National Park is the 3,000-acre Province Lands Reservation in Provincetown. This area is hailed as the second oldest common lands in the country, second only to the Boston Common.
Producer Dave Fraser takes us on a tour of this unique area of Cape Cod.
Rob Costa, Art’s Dune Tours: I think it’s a magical place and, you know, I’ve actually been telling people I call it the Outback of Provincetown because it’s so vast.
It’s thousands of acres of dunes, beaches, and forest land that stretch as far as the eye could see with, as you can see, beautiful vegetation throughout. And has a lot of wild animals. It’s got these little dune shacks that has so much history.
So we’ve got history, we got culture, we have flora, we have fauna, we have dunes one hundred and ten feet tall surrounding us. And it takes up seventy five percent of our entire town size is out here.
Bill Burke, Cape Cod National Seashore: For much of the outer arm of that Cape Cod, that forearm of the National Seashore, there is a 50-to-100-foot bluff that kind of commands the beach behind you.
And it creates a sense of being out in the wilderness, because you — that bluff kind of hides the modern things that are behind you. And it’s just you, the ocean, and the beach.
And it is a rugged shoreline that Thoreau and others just couldn’t write enough about because it really created a sense of solitary experience, inspiration, and natural beauty.
It’s not the rocky coastline of Maine. It’s mostly sand, but it’s a wonderful strand that captures the imagination.
