News Release

National Seashore to Host Wampanoag Lifeways Walk on June 21 and “The Greatest Beach” Program and Book Signing on June 22

Date: June 6, 2019
Contact: Bill Burke, Park Historian, 508-255-3421 ext. 0301

WELLFLEET, Mass—Cape Cod National Seashore Superintendent Brian Carlstrom announces two distinctive program offerings featuring the history of the Outer Cape.  A Wampanoag Lifeways Walk, led by Mashpee Wampanoag tribal member Earl Mills, Jr., is scheduled for June 21 at 11 am. The following day, on June 22 at 3 pm, University of Massachusetts Amherst professor Dr. Ethan Carr will present a talk and book signing called The Greatest Beach: How Cape Cod National Seashore Came to Be.  Both programs are free and will be held at Salt Pond Visitor Center, 50 Nauset Road at the intersection of Route 6 in Eastham. Reservations are required for the Wampanoag Lifeways Walk, and can be made no more than seven days in advance by calling the visitor center at [phone]. 

During the one-hour, one-mile Wampanoag Lifeways Walk, Earl “Chiefy” Mills, son of Chief Earl Mills, Sr., will share his expertise in native plant identification and traditional uses, as well as landscape use and changes over time.  For thousands of years prior to the landing of the Pilgrims nearly 400 years ago in 1620, Wampanoag people drew nutritional and spiritual sustenance from the land and water. Dr. Carr, author of The Greatest Beach, is a professor of landscape architecture, an international authority on America’s public landscapes, and author of the recently completed administrative history of the seashore.  He will describe the events leading up to the establishment of seashore and the development of the park over the years.  Following the program, he will sign copies of his new book, The Greatest Beach. The Salt Pond Visitor Center Auditorium is wheelchair accessible.