Wellfleet

Wellfleet, or its Indian name Pononakrnet, has always been known for their oysters. The Indians harvested them and, when the European settlers arrived, they too thrived on them. When Wellfleet settled in the 1650s, whaling was the primary source of income and, at one time, thirty whaling vessels were in the harbor. Sometime in the 1770s, the oyster beds were mysteriously wiped out by a plague and the whaling profits declined. Fishing became the primary industry and after the Civil War, Cape Cod provided the whole country with about half their fish. Wellfleet was second in production. Wellfleet incorporated in 1763.

Tourism began in a strange way. A young skipper, Lorenzo Dow Baker, returned from Jamaica, first with ripe bananas which spoiled but, on the next trip, with green bananas. They were such a hit, he expanded his “banana fleet”. He and his brother-in-law, Elisha Hopkins, organized L.D. Baker and Co. They offered public stock and became the Boston Fruit Company. During this bonanza, Baker built the Chequesset Inn on pilings of the Mercantile Wharf, staffed it with Jamaicans and the tourists showed up in droves. If that wasn’t enough, Guglielmo Marconi was busy on the Atlantic Beach sending telegrams on the first American based telegraph to Theodore Roosevelt and King Edward VII just to name a few.

Wellfleet is perhaps one of the more interesting towns on Cape Cod. Almost half the town’s acreage is in the National Seashore and 70 per cent is under some sort of protection. Therefore, much of the town remains as it has been for many, many years. Wellfleet has the second largest collection of art galleries on Cape Cod. Oystering and shellfishing are still major industry and an annual Oyster Fest is celebrated in October. As you might imagine, the local restaurants are magnificent. Marconi Beach still has the bases of two of the four towers that Marconi used to send his first wireless messages in 1903. Unfortunately, erosion has washed most of his original station into the ocean. Also at Marconi Beach is the Atlantic White Cedar Swamp Trail. It’s about a mile and a quarter long and exhibits plant life that has evolved over the years.