Cape Cod

Cape Cod, narrow peninsula of glacial origin, 399 sq mi (1,033 sq km), SE Mass., extending 65 mi (105 km) E and N into the Atlantic Ocean. It is generally flat, with sand dunes, low hills, and numerous lakes. Bartholomew Gosnold, an English explorer, visited the Cape in 1602 and named it for the abundant fish found in surrounding waters. Fishing, whaling, shipping, and salt making were important until the late 1800s. Tourism and cranberry growing (Cape Cod is the nation's largest producer) are now economic mainstays. Housing development and population (now about 200,000) have gradually increased, and the Cape is faced with strains on water and road systems as well as with increasing pollution. Towns on Cape Cod include Barnstable; Provincetown, site of the Pilgrims' first landing (1620); Falmouth, location of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; and Bourne, through which the

Cape Cod Canal passes. This lockless canal, 17.5 mi (28.2 km) long, 32 ft (10 m) deep, was built (1910–14) from private funds and purchased by the U.S. government in 1927; it accommodates oceangoing vessels and cuts the distance between New York City and Boston by 75 mi (121 km). Parts of Cape Cod constitute

Cape Cod National Seashore (43,685 acres/17,686 hectares; est. 1961). It contains beaches, sand dunes, heathlands, marshes, freshwater ponds, and historic sites, including the first Marconi wireless station in the United States.

Bibliography

See histories by H. C. Kittredge (2d ed. 1968) and P. Schneider (2000).

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Cape Cod

Peninsula, eastern Massachusetts, U.S. Some 65 mi (105 km) long and 1–20 mi (2–32 km) wide, it touches Buzzards Bay and extends into the Atlantic Ocean in a wide curve, enclosing Cape Cod Bay. The Cape Cod Canal, cutting across the base of the peninsula, forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. Named by an English explorer who visited its shores in 1602 and took aboard a “great store of codfish,” Cape Cod was the site, near Provincetown, of the Pilgrims' landing in 1620. Extending into the warm Gulf Stream, it has coastal towns and villages that become densely populated resorts in summer. In the 19th century Provincetown was an active whaling port. The cape's northern hook was designated the Cape Cod National Seashore in 1961.

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Cape Cod

1. a long sandy peninsula in SE Massachusetts, between Cape Cod Bay and the Atlantic

2. a one-storey cottage of timber construction with a simple gable roof and a large central chimney: originated on Cape Cod in the 18th century