By Martha Hyams
Can you say Truro Tercentennial quickly three times? Mark your calendars; Truro will commemorate its 300th anniversary in July 2009. Plans are already being considered and all members of the community are welcome to participate. Until then, there are many other aspects of Truro to celebrate.
Certainly the beaches are among the most beautiful aspects of Truro. Truro is the narrowest and longest town on the Cape. One of my friends loves to go to Coast Guard Beach for the full moon every month, year-round. She stands on a dune and watches the sun setting over the bay while the moon rises out of the Atlantic Ocean. Reason enough to love Truro.
The bay beaches tend to be a little warmer than the ocean beaches, and a little less dramatic. Beach stickers are required for some of the beaches. The stickers are available at the Beach Office, which is in a small building on 6A near the North Truro Post office.
Corn Hill Beach provides a view of Provincetown. You will actually be able to see the hook at the end of Cape Cod. Stickers are not required; a daily pass can be bought at the parking lot. Corn Hill is wheel chair and handicap accessible.
Cold Storage, also a bay beach, is a peak experience for families with children. At low tide the children can wander on the sand and look for beach glass, barnacle-ridden stones, shells, crabs and other treasures of the sea. Parking is limited and a sticker is required.
The ocean beaches are Ballston, Coast Guard, Head of the Meadow and Long Nook. Ballston and Coast Guard are reserved for residents and renters. If you are able to enter without a car, however, that is acceptable. According to some teenagers I know, the waves at Ballston are “awesome” and the boogie boarding is the best.
Head of the Meadow has a large parking lot; entry can be paid upon arrival. On a really hot day it is easier to find a parking place there or Corn Hill than at the other beaches.
Long Nook Beach is probably the most gorgeous beach in Truro, if not the world. Standing on top of the cliff you have a panoramic view of the ocean and a dramatic drop to the beach. There are narrow footpaths leading down to the water. Get there very early in the morning, stand at the top of the cliff and watch the sunrise over the ocean. Or go in the evening and watch the moon rise.
In addition to the ocean and the bay, Truro has several ponds. They are difficult to find and parking is a minimum but a favorite is Secret Pond, off South Pamet Road. The only drawback is that a large snapping turtle has been sighted there. Watch out!
Truro is also a great place for kayaking. Begin at Pamet Harbor. As you wind your way around tall grasses, you might be able to see turtles and fish. The water is not very deep and the ride is serene. Along the way you will have a wonderful view of the area, and if you time it right you could end up seeing a gorgeous sunset. The ride ends at a small park near the Truro Post Office. If you go in with the incoming tide and come out with the outgoing tide you’ll be in Truro heaven. If you’re interested in a little more distance, put your kayak in at Corn Hill.
It’s fun to end your day with a clambake or picnic on the beach. The clambake originated with the Wampanoag Indians but has had many additions and modifications over the centuries. Some of the seafood restaurants will prepare clambakes to go if you are not up to creating your own. If you prefer a simple beach cookout or picnic be sure to secure a permit for having a fire on the beach. Permits may be obtained at the Truro Beach Office for fires planned for the same day. You will need to go to the Beach Office at 4:00. On a perfect day the line can be long.
Highland Light, built in 1977. Whales can be seen from the lookout deck.
The Cape Cod Lighthouse, also known as Highland Light, Cape Cod’s oldest lighthouse, is perhaps the most visited place in Truro. Buses and cars can be seen coming and going all day in the summer, with good reason. It is well worth the trip. There was a lighthouse keeper employed until 1986. Originally twenty-four whale-oil lamps provided the power for the lighthouse. In 1901 a number one Fresnel lens took the place of the whale-lamps.
In the 1950’s four-way beams replaced the Fresnel lens. Unfortunately some of the prisms broke when it was taken apart. The remaining prisms can be seen in the Highland Museum.
Between ten and forty feet of erosion occur every year in the area of the lighthouse. For this reason, a decision to move the lighthouse was made in 1990. That year the beach suffered forty feet of erosion. Funds were collected from many sources. In 1996 the lighthouse was moved back four hundred and fifty feet. When the lighthouse was originally built, in 1797, it stood on ten acres. It now stands on less than four. It will most likely have to be moved again.
If you climb up the seventy steps of the lighthouse, you will have the best view of the ocean in the area. Whales can be seen from the lookout deck. The lighthouse museum store offers many items associated with Truro and lighthouses, as well as tee shirts, sweatshirts, books and calendars.
August 7th, 2007 is National Lighthouse Day. Cape Cod Lighthouse will be one hundred and fifty years old this summer. Everyone is invited to join the festivities. There will be discounts on merchandise, as well as cake, and other treats.
Adjacent to the Cape Cod Lighthouse is Highland Links, the oldest golf course on the Cape, and a true links course, one of very few in the United States. It is a nine -hole golf course, built in 1892 on what is now the National Seashore. Highland Links is managed by the town of Truro, and leased to the town by the National Seashore.
To qualify as genuine Links, the course must meet four requirements. It must be on the ocean. The rough has to be deep. The fairways have to be natural in terms of hills, meaning they cannot be mounded or leveled. Finally, the winds have to average between ten to twelve miles per hour.
The name “links” comes from Scotland, where linksland is wasteland linking the ocean to farmable land. Highland Links has been extolled in many national golf magazines. Journalists have called it a “must play” golf course. Reservations are absolutely necessary in July and August.
In the 1960’s John F. Kennedy designated almost thirty miles of seashore along Cape Cod to be protected forever from development, resulting in the National Seashore. There are many hikes in the National Seashore in Truro alone. They provide interesting historical information as well as scenic beauty. For example, walking in Pilgrim Heights, you will find a plaque commemorating the spot where the Pilgrims first found potable water. On Corn Hill Beach you will see a plaque designating the place the starving Pilgrims found a cache of corn, which they planted. A trail, which begins near the Youth Hostel on North Pamet Road, will reveal cranberry bogs and a cranberry house, which was once used for processing cranberries. About three and a half miles Northeast of the lighthouse, along the Peaked Hills Bars, at very low tide, it is possible to see the remains of the Somerset, the British ship that crashed on November 2, 1778.
The people of Truro value and appreciate this gorgeous strip of land we have been given. The state of Massachusetts, through the auspices of the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Act places the town in a rare species habitat for thirty-four plants and animals. In the future they will be working closely with the town to protect these rare and wonderful life forms. In addition, we are very involved in conservation of the land and protecting it from development. The Open Space Committee, now known as the Community Preservation Act began in 1999 and has made six purchases, more than twenty-eight acres. The Truro Conservation Trust, the oldest land trust on the Cape, is a private organization which receives donations of funds and land has saved two hundred and eighty acres half upland and half wetland. This is the spirit and character of Truro.