"East and ahead of America
there stands in the Atlantic
the last fragment of an ancient and vanished land.
For twenty miles, this last and outer earth
faces the ever hostile ocean
in the form of a great eroded cliff of earth and clay.
Worn by the breakers and the rains,
and disintegrated by the wind,
it still stands bold."
Henry Beston, 1928.
Thrust boldly into the blue,
Cape Cod became a symbol
of a young nation's aspiration
and its close connection with the sea.
Today, it continues to intrigue,
inspire, and delight,
drawing millions of visitors every year.
Yet, the Cape of today
is not the Cape of yesterday, nor of tomorrow.
Cape Cod is one of the most geologically dynamic places
on Earth,
a constantly shifting remnant of a time
when the land looked very different.
20,000 years ago,
New England was covered by the massive Laurentide Ice Sheet,
a mile-high continental glacier.
Every winter, fed by snow and freezing temperatures,
the ice sheet advanced southward,
grinding the rock below like a bulldozer.
During the summer, the glacier retreated
and pulverized sediment flowed across the landscape.
Over thousands of years,
this constant movement of ice and meltwater
created a vast outwash plain,
layers of sandy material that would become known as Cape Cod.
Every day, just before the dawn, the earth is quiet.
Then, at dawn, the light comes.
When this happens, the land is warmed
as well as all living creatures.
At this very point in time, each day,
when the darkness is separated from the light,
it is a sacred time.
Jessie Little Doe Baird, Mashpee Wampanoag.
According to their traditions, the Wampanoag First People
have lived here from the time
before the ice made its final retreat northward.
They farmed the land, hunted the forests,
and fished the waters.
They maintained strong social networks
up and down the East Coast,
visiting, sharing news, feasting,
and raising children as they had for generations.
It was here on Cape Cod
that Europeans made some of their earliest contact
with the region's Native Americans.
French explorer Samuel de Champlain
drew a map of the flourishing Wampanoag settlement
around the Nauset Marsh.
And it was here where the English pilgrims
first arrived in 1620
when one journey ended and another began.
For the First People,
their way of life was dramatically changed.
Dropping anchor in Provincetown Harbor,
a small party from the Mayflower landed to search for water,
taking their first steps into the New World.
"Sand hills, like the Downs in Holland,
but much better.
Excellent black earth;
all wooded with oaks, pines, sassafras, juniper, birch;
the wood, for the most part, open and without underwood."
Edward Winslow, 1622.
With the arrival of European settlers,
Cape Cod's forests were cleared for farming.
The timber was harvested for the construction
of homes and boats, or burned as fuel.
Only recently have the forests
begun to re-establish themselves,
along with the animals that depend on them.
The shoreline is also a critical habitat.
Cape Cod is one of the last major stretches
of undeveloped beach on the East Coast,
and so for threatened birds like the piping plover,
who need this habitat to nest and raise their young,
it represents hope for survival.
Cape Cod's salt marshes are sanctuaries for marine life
with research and restoration a vital part of their future.
Enriched twice a day by the flooding tides,
these marshes act as sheltered nurseries
for clams, oysters, crabs,
and over 50 species of fish.
And they buffer the land from powerful storms.
In an average year, the outer beaches of Cape Cod
lose three feet of coastline to erosion.
Climate change is anticipated to bring higher sea levels
and more fierce and frequent winter storms,
erosion's key ingredients.
"I wished to see that seashore where man's works are wrecks;
where the ocean is land-lord as well as sea-lord,
and comes ashore without a wharf for the landing;
where the crumbling land is the only invalid.
The restless ocean may at any moment cast up a whale
or a wrecked vessel at your feet."
Henry David Thoreau, 1849.
The sands shift below the water as they do on shore,
causing treacherous conditions along the highway of ships
sailing to and from Boston in the 1700s and 1800s.
Before the completion of the Cape Cod Canal in 1914,
at least 3,000 ships were wrecked
along this graveyard of the Atlantic.
Rescue huts were constructed,
offering shelter to sailors who reached land,
and soon, a network of manned life-saving stations evolved,
operated by rescue crews.
Lighthouses were also built,
acting as both a warning to mariners
and a welcoming beacon of hope to immigrants.
Despite the danger,
the sea was too precious a resource to ignore.
Just 100 miles off the coast of Cape Cod
is Georges Bank, a high underwater plateau.
Here, the mixing waters of the cold Labrador Current
and the warm Gulf Stream bring nutrients to the surface,
creating conditions for one of the most productive fisheries
in the world.
European fishing fleets had been visiting Georges Bank
even before the English pilgrims arrived,
but by the mid 1800s, the hunger for whale oil and cod
transformed New England into an international commercial center.
Local fishing and whaling industries boomed.
Sea captains from Cape Cod sailed the world.
Eventually, fish and whale populations were decimated.
Today, there are signs of hope.
In springtime, right whales still come to Cape Cod Bay
to feed on plankton.
Having nearly vanished a century ago,
this critically endangered animal still faces many threats
and is the focus of research
and sustained conservation efforts.
Grey seals, driven to near extinction
by hunting and bounty,
have returned as well.
White sharks are now seen more often hunting
this plentiful food source close to shore,
and the herring make their springtime run upstream
to the fresh waters of the kettle ponds.
People also find refuge on Cape Cod.
By the early 1900s, Cape Cod had become a destination
for relaxation, recreation, and inspiration.
Painters like Edward Hopper
and writers like Tennessee Williams
joined the long lineage of creative luminaries
who came to live in shacks among the dunes,
inspired by the quality of the light, the isolation,
and the liquid earth beneath their feet.
"To live in this world,
you must be able to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it against your bones
knowing your own life depends on it;
and when the time comes to let it go, to let it go."
Mary Oliver, 1983.
Despite its appearance of permanence,
Cape Cod's future, like its past,
is forever tied to the sea.
Within a few hundred years,
it may no longer resemble the Cape we see today.
Georges Bank may hold a clue to that future.
This underwater plateau was once a peninsula like Cape Cod
before the glaciers melted
and the rising ocean waves eroded the land away.
Yet, we who care for this special place
still have influence.
Cape Cod National Seashore was established in 1961.
It encompasses the ancestral homeland of the Wampanoag,
whose descendants continue to celebrate their heritage
and sense of place,
as well as six vibrant towns,
creating a unique and collaborative model
that has influenced the development
of other national parks.
Today, the National Seashore offers us a chance to explore
and enjoy a place rich in natural and cultural history.
For some, it is a living laboratory,
offering a greater understanding of our environment.
For others, it is a destination for sport and creativity,
a place to disconnect and reconnect.
No matter what brings each of us here,
we all must be stewards
of this fragile gift from the glaciers.
It is Cape Cod's impermanence that makes it so special.
The cycle of seasons, the movement of creatures,
the transience of the landscape.
But these are also signs of resilience.
This place, weathered and worn, still endures.
It is ours to share and protect as long as we can.