Bass Hole and the Clam Factory

When you stand on the boardwalk at Bass Hole, and look toward Dennis, a strange looking group of buildings, known by locals as “the clam factory,” sits prominently on the edge of Chase Garden Creek, on the inside of Chapin Beach. At night, a green glow seems to emanate from it, further adding to its mystery. 

The area where this “factory” is located has a rich and storied history. The indigenous peoples were the first to see the benefits of this area. They probably practiced the first aquaculture in America, when they went shellfishing. Many times, they must have gathered more than they needed, and they kept the ones not used in known locations to make them easier to find the next time. Evidence of their having been in the area are common, and shell middens (piles of shells) can still be seen on Sandy Neck. Sandy Neck was likely a nicer place for them than Bass Hole, for the summer winds there kept off the dreaded gnats, mosquitoes, and greenheads. 

Photo by Christopher Seufert

The early colonials called this large area Bass Hole, evidence of nature’s bounty. 

To the west of the creek, a sandy beach stretched from Bass Hole all the way around to Mill Creek on the Barnstable town line. Yarmouth people were calling this beach “Gray’s Beach” before 1700. The beach lasted until after World War II, when a series of hurricanes in the 1950s washed away the sand. The town of Yarmouth had to dig out the present small crescent of beach to recreate a bathing section for townspeople on the north side. One of the evidences that Gray’s Beach used to extend much further than it does today is the remains of pilings in Clay’s Creek. Where the boardwalk now ends, you can see cut off pilings below the water in the creek in mute testimony to a longer boardwalk and extensive beaches which used to exist on the other side of that creek. 

A family group enjoying Gray’s beach in the 1940s.

Ship building thrived on the island in the middle of Chase Garden Creek (then called a river). The island, very near the present clam factory, was known as the “Horseshoe shipyards”, and vessels were built there after the American Revolution until the 1820s weighing up to 100 tons burthen. Further up stream, other shipbuilding enterprises thrived as well, at Bray’s shipyard, and at Hull’s and Homer’s docks.

Yarmouth had its first Town Dock right here at Bass Hole, and during the American Revolution, the British recognized this area as one of the two major ports on Cape Cod. One British map, printed in 1776, identifies only two harbors on Cape Cod: what is now Provincetown and Bass Hole. The silting in of the area in the 1820s led to moving the town wharf further west over to the Mill Creek area. 

Until the hurricanes hit in the 1950s, George Chapin had a large duck hunting camp on the Dennis side of Chase Garden Creek. It was from him that Chapin Beach was acquired by the town of Dennis and the Aquacultural Research Corporation was able to purchase its property in 1960 to begin growing clams. Founded by two men who served on a US Navy submarine together, W. Van Alan Clark, Jr and Dick Loring talked about what to do when they left the service. According to ARC’s website, “they decided to try developing a system of growing shellfish from the hatchery stage through growout to market size. They chose to start with steamers, or soft-shelled clams – and Aquacultural Research Corporation was born in 1960.”

Aquacultural Research Corporation has tried growing both soft shelled clams as well as hard shelled clams, but has found more success with hard shelled clams. Cape Codders would call them quahogs, but that name isn’t known across the country.

A 1990s aerial image of ARC.

At the clam factory (even the people who work there called it that - or the clam farm), they developed aquacultural processes to grow hard shelled clams. Their research is privately funded and is aimed toward their own products. A broad based staff of marine biologists, engineers, and technicians culture the clams and monitor quality from the hatchery right up to shipping. Control of the growth processes provides a reliable, consistent supply of clams throughout the year.

In 1993, the corporation reorganized, and at that time gave 220 acres of marshland to the Dennis Conservation Trust. Much of the marsh visible from the road when driving to Chapin Beach is part of these 220 acres. The remaining land and buildings continue to grow clams for the clam factory’s national market.

The process of growing clams starts in the winter. From December to spring, the hatchery portion of the clam factory is in full operation. Select parent stock of shellfish are carefully bred in the facility’s hatchery and are reared in specially designed tanks and systems. The “seed” produced is, in fact, juvenile shellfish, and must be fed. The large aquatic greenhouses on the property exist so that Aquacultural Research Corporation can grow microscopic algae to feed these new clams. Algae only grow when there is light, and winter light is at best marginal, so lights are installed in these greenhouses. The light shines through the plastic green roofs, giving off the strange glow that can be seen there at night.

Following the larval stages, young clams are moved to an indoor nursery system where heated seawater and the cultured food produce accelerated growth before their transfer to protected field cages. Final “grow out” occurs in a natural bottom in certified tidal areas to ensure pure natural flavor and highest quality. That Aquacultural Research Corporation can use the waters around Bass Hole speaks highly for the quality of water there.

The clams, after harvesting, are bagged and sent in refrigerator trucks, or in insulated boxes if being shipped by air. In less than 48 hours, the clams go from the waters at Cape Cod to the customers’ plates.

The clam factory also grows surf clams, scallops, and oysters to sell to other growers.  The town of Yarmouth buys some of its quahogs to stock its beds from Aquacultural Research Corporation. If you’ve purchased a shellfish license in Yarmouth and gone “clamming”, you probably have eaten some of the mollusks raised right on Chase Garden Creek. Other towns also make purchases from the company.

Click the image to visit their website.

Unfortunately for those who would like to visit, there is no insurance to cover the liability of having visitors, nor are there workers who can give tours to those who show up. This is a private corporation and for that reason there is a privacy sign posted as you enter from Chapin Beach road.

For Cape Codders, it’s reassuring to know that efforts are being made by Aquacultural Research Corporation to insure the future quality of  hard shelled clams on Cape Cod. About the only thing that might make one shudder in fright, would be at the thought that these Cape Cod clams could be sent to New York and be ruined by the addition of tomatoes to the clam chowder!

Researched and written by Duncan Oliver.

Salty Women: Savvy Owners of South Yarmouth’s Saltworks

The saltworks industry in Yarmouth, which prevailed for one hundred years, began at Bass River in 1809. Its roots, cultivated by Capt. John Sears and Hattil Killey, were in the East Precinct of Yarmouth, which became Dennis in 1793. The first surviving salt manufacturing deed, dated 1811, references Seth and Zeno Killey, Abiel Akin, and Isaiah Crowell’s existing saltworks along Bass River. Seth Killey’s business journal records salt stocks in 1810.

Saltworks (denoted by the checkerboard pattern) along Bass River.

In Friends Village, saltworks were built continuously from Wing Street to 175 Old Main Street and along Bass River. Significant saltworks were built west of Old Main Street, some nearly three quarters of the way to Long Pond. Almost all of the salt manufacturing in this area was owned by members of the Society of Friends.

The Yarmouth Friends (Quakers), who were a self-contained community, took care of their sick, their poor, and their legal issues. Believing in equal opportunities for all, the women conducted their own business meetings as early as 1681. 

Under normal conditions at this time, when a man died, his estate was distributed according to his will. Usually, the wife would receive one third of his estate; however, there were six women living in Friends Village, all members of the Society of Friends, who became owners of salt manufacturing businesses after their husbands or fathers died. These women were: Rebecca Frye, Tamsen Gifford, Tamsen Freeman (Gifford) Baker, Rebecca (Wing) Steere, Rhoda (Gifford) Wing, and Eliza Wood. The following is a testament to their business acumen.

Rebecca Frye was the daughter of Thomas Akin who owned saltworks in Friends Village until his sudden death in 1841. In the distribution of his estate in 1844, David Kelley was entrusted to manage fourteen hundred feet of saltworks for Akin’s two minor children, Rebecca and Abiel. Rebecca managed her portion of the works for six years and in 1853, at twenty-seven years old, Rebecca sold her share of the works to her uncle David K. Akin.

Tamsen Freeman (Gifford) Baker was the daughter of Prince Gifford who was a large salt manufacturer in Friends Village. The family lived on Union Street where the parking lot of the Cultural Center is today. Gifford owned multiple strings of saltworks that ran behind the row of residences along Old Main Street from Mill Lane to Saltworks Lane. One mill and a salt house was built at Bass River. Prince Gifford died in 1844, leaving his saltworks to his daughter Tamsen Freeman (Gifford) Baker. Under his daughter Tamsen’s ownership, the valuation of these works listed on the 1850 and 1860 census was two thousand dollars. She ran these works for seventeen years and in 1861 sold all the works to her mother Tamsen Gifford. Under Tamsen Gifford’s ownership, the 1870 census listed the valuation of her estate at twenty-five hundred dollars. In 1883, Tamsen deeded back to her daughter Tamsen F. Baker half the works. In 1885, she deeded the other half to her son Prince. 

Robert Wing was an extensive salt manufacturer whose business, Robert Wing & Company, was mainly in Bass River Village. In 1807, he married Elizabeth Killey, and lived on the corner of Union and Old Main Streets. They had one surviving  child named Rebecca. Wing later married Abigail Smith. His daughter, Rebecca married Thomas Ellwood Steere of Providence, RI. Wing’s saltworks were valued on the 1850 census at seven thousand dollars. He died in 1856, leaving all of his saltworks to his wife Abigail and daughter Rebecca Steere.

In 1860, Abigail Wing and Rebecca Steere sold over seven thousand feet of saltworks in Bass River Village to David Smith, Barnabas Sears Jr., Isaiah Crocker, and her first cousin David Kelley. Abigail left South Yarmouth to live the rest of her life in New Bedford among family. Rebecca Steere managed these saltworks at Bass River Village between the County Road and Bass River for thirty years. In 1885, she sold the remaining five thousand feet of works to David Kelley. These works were active until 1889 and were the last saltworks remaining in Bass River Village.

Rhoda (Gifford) Wing was the daughter of Prince Gifford and wife of Daniel Wing Sr. They lived at 6 Akin Street right behind the Gifford homestead. In 1841 Daniel Wing Sr. bought the works from Abraham Shearman Jr. and Isaiah Crowell northwest of the County Road. Wing died suddenly in 1842 and the works then were managed by his wife Rhoda. The value of these works listed on the 1850 and 1860 census was two thousand dollars. Rhoda is identified as a Merchant on the 1860 census. After managing the works for twenty-eight years, the heirs sold the works northwest of the County Road to Daniel Wing Jr. In 1872, the heirs sold the works adjoining Crosby Street to Capt. George Crocker. These were some of the last saltworks to be operable in Friends Village.

Eliza (Baker) Wood was the wife of Saltmaker Francis Wood. Their works were bought from Zeno Killey in 1849 and 1850. The land acquired in 1850, contained two and one quarter acres of saltworks, located on the south side of Homer Avenue between the County Road and Bass River. Francis died in 1853 leaving the works to his wife Eliza. She managed these works, referred to as “Aunt Eliza’s Saltworks”, for eighteen years until 1871 when she and her daughter deeded all this property to Isaiah Crocker.

These six remarkable women, with their savvy business-sense and steadfast determination, secured a lasting legacy in Yarmouth’s historic saltworks industry.

Researched and written by Robert Kelley.

To learn more about South Yarmouth’s saltworks, be sure to visit the Cultural Center of Cape Cod during March 2024 for the exhibit Lost History reDiscovered.

Noah W. Morgan : from southern slave to Yarmouth sea captain

When Noah Webster Morgan was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1845, he likely never dreamed he would someday be master of his own ship, plying the coasts of New England. Yet that is exactly what happened.

South Yarmouth Quaker David K. Akin and his wife Betsey were traveling through the south and visited a Friends meeting in Back Creek, North Carolina in the late 1850s. There they met a doctor who knew two bright half-black teenage boys and a black cousin he wanted to take north to freedom. Noah and Eli were brothers whose white Scottish father had died, and two of their sisters had been sold into slavery to settle large estate debts. It was feared the boys would soon be sold also. Dr. Nathan B. Hill, a Quaker, had agreed to accompany them if someone at the end of their journey would take them in. Dr. Hill was in the process of moving to Minnesota.

David K. Akin

Dr. Nathan B. Hill

Akin and his wife agreed to accept responsibility for Noah Morgan, his brother Eli, and cousin Dempsey Ragsdale, once they arrived in Yarmouth. A plan was discussed and put in motion.

Dr. Hill soon set out with the three young men. They were stopped in Richmond, Virginia where someone offered Dr. Hill cash for the boys, but after refusing the offer, they were able to continue north. According to Hannah Sears, granddaughter of the Akins, “the doctor had a hard time getting them to New York and, after he had gotten them on a steamer for Fall River, locked them in a stateroom and went to eat his first meal. Still fearful, he went back and found a man trying to pick the lock!”

The group arrived safely in Bass River. The Akins provided a home for Noah and Eli, and David Kelley took in cousin Dempsey. They had received little if any education so the boys were tutored in their letters and taught to read, then later entered the South Yarmouth Grammar School, where Noah and Eli were noted in the Yarmouth Register as having perfect attendance in Spring 1859. Noah, in particular, was a “very good scholar.”

David K. Akin’s home in Bass River.

After the Civil War broke out Noah enlisted in 1863, first joining the army in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment under Col. Robert Shaw, one of the first African American regiments. He joined the Navy in 1864 out of New Bedford, and served on the steamer Nyanza which patrolled the Mississippi, and then supply ship USS Pampero. It is likely he learned his seamanship skills during this time. He survived the war, returned to Yarmouth in 1866 and later received a pension for his service.

The Navy was far more integrated during the Civil War.

By 1870 Noah was engaged in the salt making trade and that year married Mattie Knox of New Bedford. They settled into a house near the river on Pleasant Street and started a family. Their first child, a son, was named David Akin Morgan after their mentor. A daughter named Emily Mae followed a few years later. Hannah Sears fondly remembered her friend “Emmie” who she saw nearly every day as they whiled away the hours doing what kids do along the shore of Bass River.

The Morgans had a large garden and were known throughout the village for their sweet potatoes and delicious melons.

One of the houses Noah and his family lived in was this little white Cape at 50 Pleasant Street.

In early 1881 Noah was named master of the William H. Rowe and in 1883 the family moved to New Bedford; a larger port with more opportunities. By 1889 he was part owner of the schooner F. H. Odiorne and in 1895 he purchased a quarter interest in the schooner Oliver Ames, becoming her managing owner. The Oliver Ames was the largest two-masted schooner on the coast at 124’ long, with a 33’ beam. The vessel delivered coal to Maine and stone to Philadelphia along with other cargo. In 1909 Noah became half owner of the schooner and sailed her with his son David and other crew. Financial difficulties, in part due to the ship striking rocks near Bath and being stuck in port for the summer of 1910 on a broken marine railway after being hauled out for repairs, forced him to sell his share. David worked at ropemaking in New Bedford.

Schooner Oliver Ames under sail and inbound to Bay View Granite Works

Hannah Sears described her last visit with Noah Morgan in a letter later quoted in Florence Baker’s Yesterday’s Tide : “About ten years ago, in that city for a few hours, I decided to look him up. I knew that his wife, Mattie, had died and that my early playmate had become Mrs. Emily Morgan Tabb of Jersey City. As I went up the street toward his home, a tall stiffly-moving figure was sweeping off the pavement. The back, which for years had carried the scars from a boyhood lashing, was now bent and a shock of white hair made striking contrast to his face….as I introduced myself he gave his old familiar smile … and was again, “Emmie’s father,” as when he lived with his family in the little house near Bass River. We talked long of the changes that had taken place and he asked many questions about those he had known in South Yarmouth. As he bade me good-by, his face shining with friendliness, he patted me on the shoulder with a gentle, ‘Thank you so much, Missy, for coming to see me!’”

168 North Street, New Bedford, where Noah lived in the 1900s with his family.

Mattie died in 1921, Noah in 1924, and son David in 1928. They are all buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in New Bedford. Daughter Emily married Augustus Tabb, moved to New Jersey and had a son who later became an Episcopal priest. Eli, the older of the two brothers and found in later records as “Elias T. Morgan”, was in New Bedford by 1867, married there and had several children. There is no indication he became a sailor. Dempsey was rumored to have gone to sea and this author was not able to find any further trace of him.

Researched and written by Nancy Mumford

*note - unfortunately no images of Noah and his family were found.

Schooner Oliver Ames.

Bass River Lighthouse and the cousin who saved it

Today the Bass River Lighthouse is part of the The Lighthouse Inn located in West Dennis. But there was a time when its beacon was vital to the safety of mariners sailing the southern coast of Cape Cod. When government officials underestimated its importance and extinguished the light in 1880, a local sea captain took it upon himself to use a distant family connection to try and change their decision.

During the nineteenth century Bass River was one of the more important shipping centers on the southern coast of Cape Cod. South Yarmouth and West Dennis sea captains, who were essential to the local economy, anchored their vessels in an area of deeper water, known as Deep Hole, just outside the mouth of the river. Coasters heading to and from Boston or other Cape ports often anchored there as well awaiting favorable winds and tides.

Prior to 1855, ships sailing thru the region were aided by a dedicated West Dennis resident named Warren Crowell. Every night without fail Mr. Crowell lit a kerosene lantern and hung it in the attic window of his home on Wrinkle Point so mariners would have a landmark to help with navigation. Sea captains living in the vicinity were so appreciative to have this light, that many contributed 25 cents a piece annually to purchase kerosene for Mr. Crowell's lantern.

Wrinkle Point.

Bass River maritime activities flourished during the 1850s to the point that a shipyard was even established for the construction of new vessels. Officials soon acknowledged the increase in shipping traffic in the area and decided a lighthouse was needed. On September 28, 1850 Congress appropriated $4,000 to build Bass River Light. 

A strip of land, then called Follins Island, located east of the mouth of the river was selected and the land was purchased from shoemaker George Richardson. Several teams of oxen were used to haul materials over the salt marshes and thru the dunes. In early 1855 construction was completed on the two story wood framed building with a lantern mounted on the roof. On April 30, 1855 the lighthouse, complete with a fifth-order Fresnel lens that could be seen up to eleven miles out to sea, was officially lit.

For the next twenty-five years the bright white light emitting from the lighthouse helped mariners navigate through the local waters. Appropriately, the fore-mentioned Warren Crowell was selected as the first light keeper. Crowell, along with his wife and children (which eventually numbered nine) moved into the dwelling and he served his post diligently for the next eight years. In 1863 he took a leave of absence to enlist in the Union Army where he was wounded and taken prisoner in Virginia. He eventually returned to Dennis after the war and was able to resume his position. Two other men, Captain James Chase and Zelotes Wixon also helped watch over the lighthouse during the next seventeen years.

In 1880, when Stage Harbor Light was built about ten miles down the coast in Chatham, the U.S. Government felt, incorrectly, that Bass River Light was no longer needed. Funding for operation of the light was not renewed and on August 1st of that year, despite public protest, the light was turned off. On September 1st it was ordered to be sold at auction, where a Captain William White of South Yarmouth purchased the structure for $400.

The decision to extinguish the light did not sit well with the local sea faring community who decided that actions needed to be taken. Captain William Garfield of West Dennis felt a distant family member could be of some assistance in the matter. It seems Garfield was not originally from Cape Cod. He had been born in Ohio and a member of his extended family was none other than James A Garfield, the newly elected President of the United States.

In one of his letters to the new President, written in early 1881, Captain Garfield explained the local feeling on the importance of the light. "I drop you a line or two again on account of a Light House we have here that has been standing for twenty-five years and last October was put out by the Lighthouse Board. We have sent in a large partition for them to relight it again. Our Harbor is one of the best that there is in Vineyard Sound. All vessels come in here in bad weather and no light makes it bad for large vessels. When you git to Washington and git everything working, well then, we shall write you and see if you can do anything for this Lighthouse."

The Captain's letters apparently struck a chord with President Garfield as upon arriving in Washington D.C. he personally looked into the matter. In June 1881 the President sent a letter to the Captain inviting him to come to the White House for dinner. The little village of West Dennis must have been a-buzz with excitement to have one of their residents dining with the President of the United States. 

Captain Garfield left for Washington via train with two of his teenage daughters, Esmilda age 15, and Addie age 13, by his side. On the evening of July 1st they arrived at the White House for their dinner with the President. When the meal was over the young ladies were given a tour of the executive mansion while the men relaxed with an after dinner cigar. The President proudly explained that Bass River Light was being relit by his executive order. It seems after receiving the captain's letters earlier that year, the President had convinced members of Congress to appropriate funds to purchase back and re-establish the light.

President James Garfield

Following its re-lighting, Bass River Light continued to assist mariners for another three decades. But starting in early 1914 there was a noticeable decrease in local ship traffic in the area and with the newly constructed Cape Cod Canal set to be opening soon, the closing of the lighthouse was being openly discussed. When an automatic light was established on the west side jetty at the entrance to Bass River later that year, its fate was sealed. On June 14th, 1914, after nearly sixty years of valuable service, Bass River Light was officially closed.

The automated light on Bass River.

Over a hundred years have passed since Bass River Light was last used as a year round light station. Thru the years it was bought and sold, left unoccupied for a short period of time, and even moved from its original location. When the Stone family purchased the building in 1938 they saw its potential as a destination for weary tourist in need of a good meal and some seaside relaxation. Members of the family have continued to own and manage it. Today as an inn and restaurant it has become a Cape Cod landmark to tourists and locals alike. 

In 1989, in conjunction with the 200th anniversary of the U.S. Lighthouse Service, the light was relit. Officially designated “West Dennis Light” it continues to run as a seasonal navigational aid during the summer months and is the only privately owned and maintained working lighthouse in the country. But history will remind us that its major contribution was to the thousands of mariners who used its light to guide them safely during the golden age of sail. Because of the actions of the cousins Garfield and others in 1881 the light was allowed to remain active for an additional thirty-three years. This undoubtedly saved the lives of many men and women who may have otherwise been lost to the sea. Captain William Garfield and Warren Crowell both rest in a sleepy West Dennis Cemetery less than a mile from The Lighthouse Inn. 

Researched and written by William Painter

Barnstable's Forgotten Dude Ranch

Barnstable citizens at the station that day in July 1945 must have watched popeyed as newly arrived passengers from the New York train mounted a western stage coach in time for the grinning driver to rouse his four horses with a crack of the whip.

Even more surprised, if not amused a few days earlier, were motorists on the Old Kings Highway to find their progress slowed by cowboys driving a herd of horses as far as Bonehill Road in Cummaquid.

And why did that gentleman in five gallon hat and western boots strolling along Barnstable Village Main Street remind us of  Roy Rogers? Because … he was Roy Rogers.

Roy Rogers.

Before our astonished witness could swear “never to touch another drop” he would discover that these western anomalies were all associated with Cape Cod’s recently opened “dude ranch.”

Their destination was a rustic imposing building sprawling along the heights overlooking Barnstable Harbor and Sandy Neck.  Today the rambling structure that later housed the Harbor Point Restaurant stands empty, with an ancient millstone for its doorstep. Also near the front door was a large grindstone which once belonged to the Swift family who ran the local abattoir for butchering livestock. Bonehill was then known as “Slaughterhouse Road” before members of the family moved to Chicago to create one of the country’s leading meat packing companies.

Noted for its fine dining, elegant wedding receptions and sweeping views of Barnstable Harbor and Sandy Neck, the Harbor Point restaurant had many other names and colorful diversions in its 100 year history.

The property was originally developed in 1902 as a summer home for the Johnson family of New York.  Mr. Johnson was a silk merchant of considerable influence, as evidenced by the fact that railroad officials would hold the train when Mr. Johnson was delayed on Friday nights leaving his office for the weekend on Cape Cod.

During Prohibition in the 1920s, the gracious family home under new ownership had metamorphosed into a favorite joint of local sports and flappers because of its secluded location convenient to the quiet delivery of “supplies” via Barnstable Harbor.

Bob Borino, the former restaurant manager, would show interested visitors a secret closet in one of the bedrooms with its trap door, where rum runners brought up the liquor.

By the 1930s, the establishment had become notorious as a house of ill fame, although the archives are lacking in details on this phase.

In the early 1940s, Floyd van Duzer was ready to retire from his machine shop in Quincy, and pursue his yen to raise livestock on Cape Cod. According to Caleb Warren, writing in the Cape Cod Business Journal (June 1982), Van Duzer was shown  “a hundred acres with a mile of beach and a well built house” in Cummaquid for $60,000. He offered $15,000 and the spread was his, with even more buildings than he had known about. Being a real adventurous type, and encouraged by his wife, who had western connections, and stalwart sons, he conceived the idea of a dude ranch. 

After the town of Barnstable issued a permit in 1944, van Duzer began searching the rodeo circuit out west to find a suitable manager. He came up with Blackie Karman from Encampment, Wyoming, “once voted the best all round cowboy after a rodeo in Madison Square Garden.” He turned out to be a creative, if unpredictable, foreman. He convinced Van to buy some 30 horses “never ridden before,” which created a problem when cowboys and horses came off the train at Barnstable station. The horses made straight for the green grass of the court house lawn, and during the drive down Old Kings Highway to Bonehill Road they created confusion at the Sunday services of  St. Mary’s Church.

But, by the summer of 1945, Blackie had the ranch rolling with weekend rodeos, “featuring champion cowboys, bull riding, calf roping, bronc riding and trick roping etc.” In the first rodeo, June 23, 1945, the Barnstable Patriot reported that Cummaquid farmer Frank Taylor, “stole the show” from Blackie Karman and his cowhands from Texas and California. He won the “pipe race” and “and rode with the best of them when he handled the brake on the stage coach as the four horses whirled the top heavy vehicle in figure eights.” 

As publicity spread and brochures were distributed, guests came from all over New England, and especially New York. The stage coach would  “roll ‘em in and out” on weekends at Barnstable station.  

In addition to the amenities of beach and surf, the Ranch offered some real western delights. The ranch cowboys led horseback excursions at low tide across the flats of Yarmouth to East Dennis, and “overnighters” to Provincetown.  They even found a way to ride galloping horses towing water skiers.  There were parades down Main Street in Hyannis to arouse interest in the weekend rodeos (admission $1 for adults, 50 cents for children.) Roy Rogers and other cowboy film stars occasionally visited.

The ranch produced its own vegetables, milk, butter and cream, and served up seafood from the local fishermen. According to Van Duzer, a goodly portion of the clientele came from New York, including many young women from advertising agencies.

The price seemed to be reasonable at $60 per week in a bunkroom, and $85 for a private room.

Blackie perhaps got carried away with offering the guests western style entertainment when on Labor Day he pulled his six gun and shot out all the windows in the Ranch House. He was fired thereafter.

The Dude Ranch kept on ridin’ and ropin’ until 1948, when Van Duzer sold out.  The new owners continued the food service as the Cape Cod Ranch Smorgasbord  -- “all you could eat for $3.25” -- until 1979.  In the 1980s, new owners renovated the establishment to create the Harbor Point Restaurant for “casual fine dining.”

Presumably the cowboys long ago had ridden off with their horses into the sunset.

by Haynes Mahoney

Seagulls & Yarmouth Dumps

Long ago people simply dug a hole out back or filled a ditch in the woods with their unwanted items. Anyone who has owned an old home has found bits of broken china, pipe stems or coins when digging in the garden. Older Cape Codders knew where some of those old dumps were in the woods and went to dig out treasures like old bottles. Later each village in the town of Yarmouth had its own dump which consisted of trash being piled on the ground with a road running between the piles.

Old bottles found in Yarmouth Port

The South Yarmouth dump was up a dirt road on the north side of Long Pond on what is now Regional Avenue about where Diane Avenue is and covered about two acres. There was no onsite keeper but the trash was occasionally burned. No one had a bulldozer or a front end loader so the trash was not buried. Of course there were dump pickers and a few people probably lived off of the proceeds or furnished their home with the cast offs.

Some brought their own trash and others had it picked up. Harold Kelley had a 1948 Dodge dump truck and picked up rubbish with his brother Don. Bill Angell and Edward (Dooley) Johnson bought the business and replaced the Dodge with a “packer” and expanded the business. In the 1960s Peter, Barry, and Brian Homer bought out Bill Angell and Homer Brothers Rubbish was formed. In 1972 they merged with Browning, Ferris Industries (BFI).

When the South Yarmouth dump was closed about 1950, my father bought the land for $75.00. Within a week he sold it for $125 and made $50. Now there are several homes located there.

A map circa 1935 showing two of the town dumps.

The Bass River dump was located several hundred feet up Forest Road from Long Pond Drive and before the herring run. I remember a man in a chair tending it with a rake and a pitch fork. Forest Road was a two rut dirt road at that time. The West Yarmouth dump was on Sandy Pond Road near the West Yarmouth Fire Station. My father, John Sears, was on the fire department and on many a Sunday afternoon the fires got out into the woods or were burned as a drill.

The north side’s dump was off Summer Street southwest of Dennis Pond. It was perfectly all right to shoot rats and use bottles and cans for target practice.

When the present Yarmouth landfill was opened in 1950, there was a small two or three acre pond with a camp on the land. The Fire Department was designated to clear it by burning down the camp and both Station One (south-side) and Station Two (north-side) wanted the chance burn it on a Sunday. Chief Dana Whittemore wouldn’t choose and gave the job to whoever got there first. Well, the night before, my father and Bill Angell went there with five gallons of gasoline and poured it throughout the house with a trail away from it for about 100 yards. When a match was struck it rippled toward the structure and suddenly the whole place erupted. When the fire crews arrived in the morning, there were only a few smoldering ashes. No one knew who the culprits were for a long time after.

The new central dump eliminated the village dumps. All rubbish, including stoves, refrigerators, mattresses and more were pushed into the pond. A contract to “keep the dump” was let out, and I remember Carl White pushing the trash with a snowplow on his dump truck. Soon the pond filled and the area expanded.

During the 1960s and 1970s the town experienced huge growth. The rubbish now piled on top of the ground had to be covered each night and sand was pushed over it with a bulldozer. Bill Angell again had the contract and Eddie Gibbs ran the bulldozer. With the growth of the town came land-clearing, and trees, stumps and turf came in by the truckload. Adam Watson took over but never could keep up. There were narrow trails through piles of stumps which just seemed to grow and, of course, there were fires.

Frank Johnson, Alec Todd, Herton Hallett and John G. Sears, Jr.

By now I was on the Fire Department and we spent many a day pouring water into holes to try and drown out a fire burning 25 feet below the surface. Sometimes we dug and sometimes we laid a line from a town hydrant. Occasionally I stayed all night with another man moving the fire hoses to different places. When cesspools were pumped the “honey wagons” just emptied their loads on top of the ground in an area designated for them where it just sank into the dirt as they drove away.

When the town decided that we could not continue to bury our trash, a contract was signed to haul the rubbish off-Cape to be burned at an incinerator and a transfer station was built. Along with that, a septic treatment plant was built to take care of the pumping of the cesspools.

It was the state’s directive to cover and seal the old dump or so-called landfill. There was an enormous pile of rubbish mixed with sand that had to be covered with a plastic membrane and a couple of feet of clay to seal it. It would cost around 18 million to do the job and if only just covered, it would be useless land for years.

A decision was made to grade the land into hills and valleys and build a nine hole golf course. Along with that, adjacent land was acquired and soccer fields and basketball courts were built. This was later dedicated and named the Peter Homer Park. Peter had held many town positions, the last being superintendent of the Transfer Station.

I can’t possibly explain the feeling I had one evening as I played golf alone on the new course. I stepped on top of that finely mowed grassy hill and looked down on a team of soccer players in uniform off in the distance. The lights lit up the field. I remembered back to that pond, being filled with everything you can imagine. I saw the mountains of stumps and brush, the smoky fires that burned for days. Now stood neat buildings and orderly containers to sort and recycle bottles, cans, metal, and paper which could be neatly loaded and hauled off-Cape. 

written by John Sears III

Added note – The Links 9 golf course was awarded a million dollar grant from the state, being the largest recycling project to that time! Links 9 was opened in 1999, officially in 2000. Drivers on Route 6 will remember all the seagulls near the former exit 8. The 50 foot tall landfill, which covered 57 acres, contains 40 wells which collect methane gas. On top of the trash is a six inch layer of sand, covered by durable black plastic sheets fused together. Another 18 inches of sand covers the plastic and it is capped by eight inches of topsoil. More than 240,000 cubic yards of sand were used.

The former town dump, now a golf course.

Funeral for a Yarmouth Fiat

In 2007, the Monterey Sports & Classic Car Auction sold a group of antique autos that were being liquidated by a mid western car museum.  One of the vehicles, a 1904 Fiat, drew particular interest. Bright red with tufted black leather seats and shiny brass fixtures, this restored 4 cylinder touring car was the oldest vehicle to go on the block that day.  By the end of the day, this magnificent specimen was sold for more than $209,000.

What made this car so interesting was that its very first owner lived on Cape Cod.  It was bought while a young couple was honeymooning in Europe.

On June 27, 1902 George Agassiz of Barnstable and Mabel Simpkins of Yarmouth Port were joined in marriage.  The bride was the youngest daughter of John Simpkins and sister to Congressman John Simpkins. Mabel was a beautiful young woman who had often accompanied her brother to gala events in Washington, DC.  She also happened to be the Library Commissioner for Cape Cod and a local benefactress. She and her family resided part of the time at the family home called Sandyside, which was nestled in the village of Yarmouth Port on Dennis Pond.

Portrait of Mabel Simpkins Agassiz by Mary Cassatt

George Agassiz

George Agassiz was the son of Alexander Agassiz, the scientist and the grandson of Swiss naturalist, Louis Agassiz. George was an astronomer who later had a radio telescope named for him at Harvard University. He too traveled among the upper eschelons of society and the local newspapers often reported on his visits to Newport as he mingled among the well-to-do. It was not an extraordinary move to take his bride on an extended honeymoon abroad since they were an adventurous and well traveled pair.

Fiat factory in Turin.

While abroad, Mr. and Mrs. Agassiz may have heard about a relatively new company that was formed in July, 1899 at Palazzo Bricherasio. Fabbrica Italiano Automobili Torino (Italian Automobile Factory at Turin) is known to us simply as Fiat.  Impressed with the new 24/32 model, they placed an order for the car. All Fiat sales in the United States and Canada went through Hollander & Tengeman of New York and it is believed they handled the sale and delivery for Mr. and Mrs. Agassiz. The selling price for this beautiful car was $9,000 (nearly $300,000 in today’s dollars).

The Agassiz Fiat.

Mabel enjoyed riding around the Cape roads in her shiny red car.  License plate number 3089 was issued to George Agassiz of Yarmouth Port in 1904. At that time, only 16 vehicles were registered on Cape Cod and only one other in Yarmouth Port (the other was registered to a Robert Rogers). Mabel was one of the first women drivers on the Cape; a local newspaper reported she had a small accident when she drove off the road in Plymouth. Mabel’s brother Charles Simpkins also enjoyed driving the sporty touring car, but after his death in 1931 she stopped driving it. In 1932 Mrs. Agassiz made a decision about what to do with her car. She was so attached to it, not wanting to sell it, that she had it buried on the grounds of her family home in Yarmouth Port.

Sandyside estate, Yarmouth Port

It was about 1942 when Ted Robertson of Boston, and founder of the Sports Car Club of America, heard about the buried car. He approached the Agassiz family to see if they would allow him to exhume the vehicle from its sandy grave. With the help of his friends Jack Duby and Al Paradis and some long rods, they located the car intact on its back, wheels removed, and seats missing, like a corpse lying in repose. Ted bought it from the family for $50. Robertson then sold it two years later to D. Cameron Peck of Chicago who put the wheels back on. Peck sold it to Clay Clayberg for $500 who had Tom Carstens of Tacoma, Washington rebuild the oiler.

The uncovered Fiat on Sandyside.

In 1952, Clayberg wanted to dispose of the Fiat and offered to give it to David Uihlein with the condition that David pay to ship the car from Tacoma to Milwaukee and he had to agree to restore it. The Uihlein Collection, a race car museum in Cedarburg, acquired Clayberg’s vehicle and intensive restoration began, taking nearly 40 years. The final result was a bright red car with upholstered black leather and a black canvas top that could reach speeds of 70 miles per hour.

The FIAT touring car was auctioned in 2007 and purchased by a man in the Netherlands who brought the car to England every year for the famous London to Brighton Run. Internet research indicates the car recently sold again. Remarkably, after being buried, and at 120 years old, it is still on the road.

The Agassiz Fiat making the London to Brighton run.

Excerpted from an article researched and written by Maureen Rukstalis.

Highways and Byways of Yarmouth : a history

For the first hundred years after settlers moved to Cape Cod, land travel was so difficult that few attempted to travel distances by roads. Cape Cod’s first highways were actually the sea lanes to Plymouth and Boston.  In 1704 Massachusetts resident Sarah Kemble Knight journeyed from Boston to New York by horseback, a feat that she wrote about because it was so unusual and hazardous.

Yarmouth’s first roads followed existing Indigenous paths, including what is now Route 6A. As soon as a meetinghouse was built, most roads in the town headed toward it, as it was mandatory to attend church each Sunday. Yarmouth’s first church was located in Ancient Cemetery on Center Street in Yarmouth Port. A large boulder there marks the spot. People from the other side of Bass River and Chase Garden Creek had a long distance to travel, eventually resulting in separate churches being organized in East Dennis and West Yarmouth.

Those coming to church or meetings from Hockanom (an area north of 6A) built a bridge across White’s Brook. The pilings of that bridge still remain behind Lookout Road and can be seen by canoe at very low tide. The Brays, Taylors, Hulls, and others living in Hockanom used the bridge rather than the longer journey south around the end of White’s Brook near 6A. 

Early roads had no names but granite “milestones” were erected in the 1700s in some locations with distances to Barnstable or Boston (more about those another day). Boston began naming roads shortly after the 18th century out of necessity - visitors and sailors needed to find their way around, but rural towns didn’t follow that trend until after the American Revolution. Yarmouth’s first map, drawn in 1795 for the state, shows only ten roads within the town, and those are identified with descriptions about the reason for the road rather than names. Today’s West Yarmouth Road was known in 1795 as the Road from Meetinghouse to Meetinghouse (from the church at the Yarmouth Port Common in the north to the church near the West Yarmouth cemetery). Other roads included the Road to Kelley’s Rope Works (Station Ave), Hyannis Road, and Barnstable Road.

By the time Yarmouth’s second official map was drawn in 1830, more roads existed in the town. They weren’t identified by name on the map, because the state didn’t require it. We do know that roads had names before the Civil War, as the 1858 Wallings Map of Barnstable County shows many named roads in town.

The 1830 map of Yarmouth. Bass River is lower right.

During the 1840s Yarmouth voted to plant elm trees along Main Street in Yarmouth Port and the saplings were brought by oxcart down from Middleboro, lined up by eye and planted. They grew to create an arboreal tunnel overhead by 1900.

Yarmouth Port’s beautiful elms.

Three Willow Streets in Yarmouth clearly point out the fact that 19th century Yarmouth was really a grouping of separate villages. One Willow Street starts in Yarmouth Port heading to Hyannis; another is in South Yarmouth heading towards Bass River; the third over off Bayview Road in West Yarmouth. It was not unusual for this happen in towns, yet apparently it caused little to no confusion.

The arrival of the bicycle as a means of transportation in the 1880s led to improving roads. A Scotsman named MacAdam created hard surfaced roads by oiling them and then spreading sand on the oil, giving them a solid surface. However, the coming of the automobile to Cape Cod was the real impetus for change. South Yarmouth’s Charles Henry Davis Jr. was one of the first to recognize this possibility. Prior to World War I he founded the National Highway Association with the slogan “Good Roads Everywhere” in an attempt to improve roads and to have maps and information available for the traveler. It is said that the rotary on River Street in South Yarmouth, just beyond his house, was the first rotary in the United States.

The River Street rotary.

At first, many highways were identified by a name rather than a number. Route 6A was named by the General Court of Massachusetts in 1920 “The King’s Highway.” Markers were placed all along the road, though some Cape Codders objected because they thought it unpatriotic.

In 1922, fed up with the confusing combination of names and colored bands painted on telephone poles, the New England states got together and decided to number highways. Numbers below 100 were saved for roads passing through more than one state; above 100 were within a single state only. The Cape’s Route 6 originally ran from Orleans to Colebrook, NH; Route 28 ran from Sagamore to Manchester, NH and Route 3 ran from Provincetown to Providence, RI. The other state highways on Cape Cod, being local roads, all had numbers above 100.

The Route 28 “bypass” in South Yarmouth was built in 1933 and connected to Bridge Street. Prior to that, all traffic went down Old Main Street as no other road existed and what we now call “Four Corners” was then Three Corners. The Bass River Bridge you see now was also built at the same time.

Our roads underwent major changes after World War II. The biggest change was the creation of a new Route 6, a one lane road each way from the canal as far as Barnstable. It was completed in 1950 and the next year extended one lane each way as far as Dennis. In 1959, it was continued to the Orleans rotary.

A 2-lane Route 6 in 1961.

Two lanes each way proved much safer and the capacity was needed, so Route 6 was expanded from Barnstable to Yarmouth in 1967 and to Dennis in 1971.

Now, with our roads at capacity much of the year, it’s hard to imagine quieter days when a horse and buggy, or someone on foot, meandered down Old King’s Highway to the general store on an errand, or to visit a friend.

Researched and written by Duncan Oliver.