Truro rowboats Highland Light
Old Harbor Life Saving Museum, Provincetown
Blessing of the fleet, Provincetown
The narrowing of the Outer Cape and the power of nature readily become evident in Truro and Provincetown. Here the way the wind and the sea move sand around seems to be more noticeable than elsewhere on the peninsula.
Even in the summer, Truro is relatively desolate for a Cape Cod town, especially when compared with its bustling neighbor to the north, Provincetown, with its writers, artists, actors, and tourists.
Truro
Many towns claim many associations with the Pilgrims, and Truro can certainly claim its own. Myles Standish and a small Mayflower group discovered a basket of corn that had been buried by Indians on what is now known as Corn Hill, and another group found a freshwater spring near Pilgrim Lake (see [pages 34-35]).
The town, originally called Pamet and then Dangerfield, took the name of Truro in 1709 because of its similarities to an area of seaside moors and valleys by that name in England.
Whaling ships once worked out of Pamet Harbor on Cape Cod Bay, and until the 1860s the town was a major port with its related shipbuilding and fishing facilities and its saltworks. Most of the men made their living at sea, and in 1841 the town lost 57 fishermen in one storm. Today the small center of town has a few restaurants and other facilities for travelers.
Highland Light—also known as Cape Cod Light—is the second lighthouse constructed on the high bluff overlooking the Atlantic at Truro. The first was built in 1797 and the present one in 1857. Today the U.S. Coast Guard also maintains a radio beacon here to assist ships in their navigation. Nearby is the Truro Historical Society’s Highland House Museum.
The National Seashore has two short trails in the Pilgrim Heights area of North Truro. Pilgrim Spring Trail takes you through the area where a Mayflower exploratory group supposedly found a freshwater spring. Small’s Swamp Trail loops through a farmstead that was abandoned in 1922; the Small family built their house in a glacial kettle-hole.
Other points of interest: Pamet Cranberry Bog house; a Paul Revere bell in the 1827 Bell Church on Meetinghouse Road; Head of the Meadow Beach.