The
most popular beaches on this island in the North Atlantic are Surfside and
Children’s. The waters here are relatively calm, and there’s plenty of sand to
use for sunbathing or castle-building. Madaket Beach is known for its rougher
surf and not-to-be-missed sunsets. Quidnet Beach provides great views of
Sankaty Head lighthouse.
History
Nantucket's
settlement by the English did not begin in earnest until 1659, when Thomas
Mayhew sold his interest to a group of investors, led by Tristram Coffin,
"for the sum of thirty Pounds...and also two beaver hats, one for myself,
and one for my wife". The "nine original porchasers" were
Tristram Coffin, Peter Coffin, Thomas Macy, Christopher Hussey, Richard Swain,
Thomas Barnard, Stephen Greenleafe, John Swain and William Pike. Seamen and
tradesmen began to populate Nantucket, such as Richard Gardner (arrived 1667)
and Capt. John Gardner (arrived 1672), sons of Thomas Gardner (planter).
In his
1835 history of Nantucket Island, Obed Macy wrote that in the early pre-1672
colony, a whale of the kind called "scragg" entered the harbor and
was pursued and killed by the settlers This event started the Nantucket whaling
industry. A. B. Van Deinse points out that the "scrag whale",
described by P. Dudley in 1725 as one of the species hunted by early New
England whalers, was almost certainly the gray whale, which has flourished on
the west coast of North America in modern times with protection from whaling.
Herman
Melville commented on Nantucket's whaling dominance in Moby-Dick, Chapter 14:
"Two thirds of this terraqueous globe are the Nantucketer's. For the sea
is his; he owns it, as Emperors own empires." The Moby-Dick characters
Ahab and Starbuck are both from Nantucket. By 1850, whaling was in decline, as
Nantucket's whaling industry had been surpassed by that of New Bedford. The
island suffered great economic hardships, worsened by the July 13, 1846
"Great Fire" that, fueled by whale oil and lumber, devastated the
main town, burning some 40 acres. The fire left hundreds homeless and
poverty-stricken, and many people left the island. Another contributor to the
decline was the silting up of the harbor, which prevented large whaling ships
from entering and leaving the port. In addition, the development of railroads
made mainland whaling ports, such as New Bedford, more attractive because of
the ease of transshipment of whale oil onto trains, an advantage unavailable to
an island.
Later
history
As a
result of this depopulation, the island was left under-developed and isolated
until the mid-20th century. The isolation kept many of the pre-Civil War
buildings intact and, by the 1950s, enterprising developers began buying up
large sections of the island and restoring them to create an upmarket destination
for wealthy people in the Northeastern United States. This highly controlled
development can be compared to less-regulated development in neighboring
Martha's Vineyard, the development of which served as a model for what the
Nantucket developers wanted to avoid.
In the
1960s, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard considered seceding from the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In 1977, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard
actually attempted, unsuccessfully, to secede. The secession vote was sparked
by a proposed change to the Massachusetts Constitution that reduced the
islands' representation in the Massachusetts General Court.
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| Brant Point Lighthouse |
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