Misplaced Pages

#823176

137-731: Formerly operating along most of the south coast region (including all lines on Cape Cod ), Bay Colony's final operations ceased in late 2023, when the only two remaining lines (a roughly six-mile stretch of track between New Bedford and Westport , referred to as the Watuppa Branch , as well as a section of the Millis Branch from Medfield Junction to Millis) were purchased by Massachusetts Coastal Railroad . In addition to moving freight for its customers, Bay Colony also performed AAR -certified repairs on rolling stock and contract track construction projects for other railroads. It had

274-425: A hurricane brings damaging winds and storm surges to the region. Several Category 3 storms have struck Cape Cod since record-keeping began, such as a hurricane in 1869 , the 1938 New England hurricane , and Hurricane Carol in 1954. Strong Category 2 storms, such as the 1869 Saxby Gale , Hurricane Edna in 1954, and Hurricane Bob in 1991, also caused considerable damage. Notable Category 1 storms include

411-749: A 25-year contract. Bay Colony expressed interest in purchasing the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad in 1983. The contract for the railroad lines owned by the State of Massachusetts administered by the Executive Office of Transportation (EOT), which included the Cape Cod main expired on December 31, 2007. It was awarded to a new company, the Massachusetts Coastal Railroad , which took over on January 1, 2008. At that time

548-725: A CDP which is coextensive with the entire town. CDPs are only recognized within towns, not cities. Because the primary role of CDPs is to establish "place" data for communities located in unincorporated areas, a CDP cannot be within an incorporated place. Since the Census Bureau recognizes New England cities as incorporated places, a CDP cannot be within a city. Data users from outside New England should be aware that New Englanders usually think in terms of entire towns (i.e., MCD data), making CDP data of marginal local interest. Since virtually all territory in New England outside of Maine

685-461: A borough or city can span more than one town. In practice, though, most cities in Connecticut today do not function any differently from their counterparts elsewhere in New England. See the section below on boroughs and villages for more background on this topic. There are far fewer cities in New England than there are towns, although cities are more common in heavily built-up areas, and most of

822-484: A borough, a city can cover only a portion of a town rather than being coextensive with the town. This is rare today—only one or two examples remain—but it was more common in the past. At least one borough historically spanned more than one town: the borough of Danielsonville originally laid over parts of Killingly and Brooklyn , until the Brooklyn portion petitioned to be reorganized as a fire district and concurrently

959-518: A breadth of between 1–20 miles (1.6–32.2 km), and covers more than 400 miles (640 km) of shoreline. Its elevation ranges from 306 feet (93 m) at its highest point, at the top of Pine Hill , in the Bourne portion of Joint Base Cape Cod , down to sea level. Cape Cod and the Islands form part of a continuous archipelagic region consisting of a chain of islands running from Long Island to

1096-529: A city, it is coextensive and consolidated with the Town of Hartford; governed by a single governmental entity with the powers and responsibilities of the Town being carried out by the entity referred to as the City of Hartford. In legal theory though not in current practice Connecticut cities and boroughs could be coextensive (covering the same geography as the town) without being consolidated (a single government); also

1233-458: A complete list. Barnstable, the most populated municipality on Cape Cod, is the only one to have adopted a city form of government, whose legislative body is an elected 13-member council . However, like other smaller Massachusetts cities, Barnstable retained its "Town of Barnstable" moniker. All of the other towns elect a 5-member Board of Selectmen as the executive policy-setting board and utilize Town Meetings as their legislative body. To

1370-420: A fair number of unincorporated, named communities that lie within the incorporated territory of a municipality. Connecticut is one of two New England states to have any type of incorporated general-purpose municipality below the town level, namely incorporated boroughs (Vermont has incorporated villages). There are nine remaining in the state, with one, Naugatuck , having consolidated with the town. Additionally,

1507-456: A few cases in Maine where a township or gore does not border any other unorganized land, it is treated as its own MCD rather than being folded into a larger UT. In theory, a CDP could probably be defined within an MCD representing an unorganized area. Due to the extremely sparse population in most such areas, however, there are few if any cases in which the Census Bureau has actually done so. For

SECTION 10

#1732782534824

1644-497: A historical example in New Hampshire, see Plantation number four . Most areas of New England never developed municipal forms based on the compact populated place concept. This contrasts with states with civil townships, which typically have extensive networks of villages or boroughs that carve out or overlay the townships. Two of the New England states do have general-purpose municipalities of this type, however, to at least

1781-400: A home, so they cleared most of Cape Cod of timber early on. They planted familiar crops, but these were unsuited to Cape Cod's thin, glacially derived soils. For instance, much of Eastham was planted with wheat. The settlers practiced the burning of woodlands to release nutrients into the soil. Improper and intensive farming led to erosion and the loss of topsoil. Farmers grazed their cattle on

1918-521: A lack of significant waterpower in the area. The Cape developed as a large fishing and whaling center as a result, and also because of its geographic position. After 1860 and the opening of the American West , farmers abandoned agriculture on the Cape. By 1950, forests had recovered to an extent not seen since the 18th century. Cape Cod became a summer haven for city dwellers beginning at the end of

2055-492: A light tower that was attached directly to – and centered on the roof of – the keeper's dwelling . A stairway to the lantern room was accessible only from the top floor of the house. This came to be known as a Cape Cod style lighthouse, yet today, the only fully intact specimens are on the west coast of the United States. Most of Cape Cod's lighthouses are operated by the U.S. Coast Guard, with some exceptions, such as

2192-470: A limited extent. Connecticut has incorporated boroughs , and Vermont has incorporated villages . Such areas remain a part of their parent town, but assume some responsibilities for municipal services within their boundaries. In both states, they are typically regarded as less important than towns, and both seem to be in decline as institutions. In recent decades, many boroughs and villages have disincorporated, reverting to full town control. The term "village"

2329-478: A list of all New England towns and other town-level municipalities, see the following articles: Note: All population statistics are from the 2020 United States census . Connecticut contains 169 incorporated towns. Put into terms that are equivalent to the other New England states, 20 are cities/boroughs and 149 are towns. (As discussed in the Cities section of Other types of municipalities in New England above,

2466-594: A maritime radio station communicating to ships at sea using the callsign WCC . WCC supported the communications of Amelia Earhart , Howard Hughes , Admiral Byrd , and the Hindenburg . Marconi chose Chatham due to its vantage point on the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded on three sides by water. Walter Cronkite narrated a 17-minute documentary in 2005 about the history of the Chatham Station. Much of

2603-461: A normal-sized town, these areas were known by a variety of names, including gores , grants, locations, purchases, surpluses, and strips. Sometimes these areas were not included in any town due to survey errors (which is the technical meaning of the term "gore"). Sometimes they represent small areas that were left over when a particular region was carved into towns, not large enough to be a town on their own. Some appear to have simply been granted outside

2740-568: A part of a town — within Barnstable, the seven villages correspond to districts for fire, water, sewer and elementary schooling, for instance. (In Maine and New Hampshire, the term "village corporation" is used for a type of special-purpose district.) Many villages also are recognized as places by the United States Postal Service (some villages have their own post offices , with their names used in mailing addresses) or

2877-527: A particular municipality. All municipalities titled as cities are classified as incorporated places, even if their population-distribution pattern is no different from that of a typical town; towns are never classified as incorporated places, even if they are thoroughly built up. The ambiguity over whether certain municipalities in Massachusetts should be classified as cities or towns, and the Census Bureau's inconsistent handling of these municipalities (see

SECTION 20

#1732782534824

3014-413: A result, Maine has developed more of an infrastructure for administration of unincorporated and unorganized areas than the other New England states. The existence of this fallback probably explains why Maine has had significantly more towns disincorporated over the years than any other New England state. There have been numerous instances of towns in Maine disincorporating despite populations that numbered in

3151-426: A result, the ocean temperatures on the eastern shore of Cape Cod rarely get above 60 °F (16 °C), while along the southern coast ( Nantucket Sound ), water temperatures can sometimes reach 70 °F (21 °C) or higher. The water surrounding Cape Cod moderates winter temperatures nearly enough to extend the humid subtropical climate zone to what could be its northernmost limit in eastern North America, as

3288-521: A similar purpose to MCDs in other states in terms of governmental function or civic-identity importance. New England towns are classified as MCDs not because they are not "incorporated" but rather the data that the census gathers on places is analyzed based on different models (those of compact settled places and open rural places) that is not well represented by the New England Town system of organization. In order to better fit their own purposes,

3425-412: A single compact populated place. Plantations in Maine are similarly classified as MCDs. That New England towns serve, in essence, the same function as incorporated places in other states, but are not treated as incorporated places by the Census Bureau, can be a source of confusion. The Census classifications should not be understood to imply that New England towns are not incorporated, or necessarily serve

3562-486: A sister railroad, the Seminole Gulf Railway , which is based out of Fort Myers , Florida . The Bay Colony railroad was chartered on March 31, 1977, with the intent of taking over freight service on former New Haven lines from Conrail , which was planning to abandon service. The lines were purchased by the state government, and Bay Colony took over all freight operations on the lines on June 12, 1982 with

3699-423: A somewhat different manner from that of the other New England states. In these areas, towns were often "chartered" long before any settlers moved into a particular area. This was very common in the mid to late 18th century—although there were towns which predated that period and were not part of this process in southeastern New Hampshire, such as Exeter . Once there were enough residents in a town to formally organize

3836-571: A summer home in the Gray Gables section of Bourne. Other notable residents of Cape Cod have included actress Julie Harris , US Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis , figure skater Todd Eldredge , composer and radio personality Canary Burton , and novelists Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut . Influential natives included patriot James Otis , historian and writer Mercy Otis Warren , jurist Lemuel Shaw , and naval officer John Percival . "Lighthouses, from ancient times, have fascinated members of

3973-423: A town and a city have become blurred. Since the early 20th century, towns have been allowed to modify the town meeting form of government in various ways (e.g., representative town meeting , adding a town manager ). In recent decades, some towns have adopted what effectively amount to city forms of government, although they still refer to themselves as towns. As a practical matter, one municipality that calls itself

4110-719: A town and another that calls itself a city may have exactly the same governmental structure. With these changes in town government, a reluctance to adopt the title of city seems to have developed, and few towns have officially done so since the early 20th century. In Massachusetts, nine municipalities ( Agawam , Barnstable , Braintree , Franklin , Palmer , Randolph , Southbridge , West Springfield and Weymouth ) have adopted Mayor-Council or Council-Manager forms of government in their home rule charters, and are therefore considered to be legally cities, but nevertheless continue to call themselves "towns". They are sometimes referred to in legislation and other legal documents as "the city known as

4247-426: A town disincorporated or a plantation surrendered its organization). The remaining eight counties contain significant amounts of unincorporated/unorganized territory. Most of these areas are in very sparsely populated regions, however. Only about 1.3% of the state's population lives in areas not part of a town, city, or plantation. (Since the 2000 Census, two towns, Madrid and Centerville, have disincorporated. Thus, at

Bay Colony Railroad - Misplaced Pages Continue

4384-550: A town government, no further action was necessary to incorporate. This practice can lead to inconsistencies in the dates of incorporation for towns in this region. Dates given in reference sources sometimes reflect the date when the town was chartered, which may have been long before it was settled, and not the date when its town government became active. In other parts of New England, some "future towns" were laid out along these lines, but such areas would not be formally incorporated as towns until they were sufficiently settled to organize

4521-560: A town government. A typical town in the northern three states was laid out in a 6-by-6-mile (9.7 by 9.7 km) square. Each contained 36 sections, 1 mile (1.6 km) squares or 640 acres (260 ha). One section was reserved for the support of public schools. This was copied when the Continental Congress laid out Ohio in 1785–87. Many early towns covered very large amounts of land. Once areas had become settled, new towns were sometimes formed by breaking areas away from

4658-562: A town meeting as its legislative body; instead, a city's legislative body is an elected representative body, typically called the city council or town council or board of aldermen . City governments are typically administered by a mayor (and/or city manager ). In common speech, people often generically refer to communities of either type as "towns", drawing no distinction between the two. The presence of incorporated boroughs in Connecticut and incorporated villages in Vermont has influenced

4795-460: A unique type of entity called a plantation . Beneath the town level, Connecticut has incorporated boroughs , and Vermont has incorporated villages . In addition to towns, every New England state has incorporated cities. However, cities are treated in the same manner as towns under state law, differing from towns only in their form of government. Most cities are former towns that changed to a city form of government because they grew too large to have

4932-475: A very rudimentary organization that does not rise to the level of an organized general-purpose municipal government (e.g., a town clerk 's office exists for the purpose of conducting elections for state or federal offices). In general, unorganized areas fall into one of the three categories below. During the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, as town boundaries were being drawn up, small areas would sometimes be left over, not included in any town. Typically smaller than

5069-449: Is a spit consisting largely of deposited marine sediment that was eroded and transported from farther south along the shore. Those sediments that instead moved south created the islands and shoals of Monomoy. So while other parts of the Cape have dwindled from the action of the waves, these parts of the Cape have grown through the deposition of sediment in just the last 6,000 years. This process continues today. Due to their exposure to

5206-467: Is a concern. In 2023, the state began a nitrogen pollution regulation scheme for Cape Cod and the Islands to address overgrowth of algae, cyanobacteria, and plants. Under the Köppen climate classification , the Cape Cod area has an oceanic climate . Locally, the Cape has a more moderate climate than inland locations in eastern New England. On occasion, it takes the brunt of extreme weather systems such as

5343-518: Is a park encompassing the site of the first two-way transoceanic radio transmission from the United States. ( Theodore Roosevelt used Marconi's equipment for this transmission.) The Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port was President Kennedy's summer White House during his presidency, and the Kennedy family continues to maintain residences on the compound. President Grover Cleveland maintained

5480-726: Is a popular retirement area; 31.8% of the population of Barnstable County is 65 years old or older., and the average age of residents is the highest of any area in New England . Cape Cod is majority Democrat , but by a smaller margin than the rest of Massachusetts. The bulk of the land in the area is glacial terminal moraine and represents the southernmost extent of glacial coverage in southeast New England; similar glacial formations make up Long Island in New York and Block Island in Rhode Island. The name "Cape Cod", as it

5617-486: Is also known for a delayed spring season due to the sea remaining cold from the winter; by the same token, the summer heat retained in the sea moderates fall temperatures in comparison to the adjacent inland area. The highest temperature yet recorded on the peninsula was 104 °F (40 °C) in Provincetown, the lowest temperature recorded was −12 °F (−24 °C) in Barnstable. Precipitation on Cape Cod and

Bay Colony Railroad - Misplaced Pages Continue

5754-411: Is incorporated, CDPs do not really serve the same purpose as they do elsewhere; CDPs in New England invariably represent territory that is not "unincorporated", but part of a larger incorporated town. The extent to which such an area has its own distinct identity can vary, but is not usually as strong as identification with the town as a whole. There are numerous instances where the Census Bureau recognizes

5891-433: Is no area that is outside the bounds of a municipality. Using usual American terminology, there is no "unincorporated" land in Massachusetts. Of the 351 municipalities, the number that are cities and the number that are towns is a matter of some ambiguity. Depending on which source is consulted, anywhere from 39 to 53 are cities. The ambiguity is the result of questions around the legal status of municipalities that have since

6028-402: Is no tangible support of the presence of Norse voyagers in Cape Cod, and the view is not generally accepted by archaeologists or historians. Giovanni da Verrazzano approached it from the south in 1524. He named Martha's Vineyard Claudia, after Claude of France , the wife of Francis I of France . In 1525, Portuguese explorer Estêvão Gomes called it Cabo de la Arenas while sailing under

6165-593: Is one of the Elizabeth Islands, many of which are privately owned. One of the publicly accessible Elizabeths is the southernmost island in the chain, Cuttyhunk Island , with a year-round population of 52 people. Several prominent families have established compounds or estates on the larger islands, making these islands some of the wealthiest resorts in the Northeast, yet they retain much of the early merchant trading and whaling culture. Cape Cod in particular

6302-510: Is one of the few states in the region that is an exception to this rule; the Massachusetts Constitution requires a town to have a population of at least 10,000 people before it can switch its government from a town meeting form to a city form. Nevertheless, even without a hard and fast population limit for city status, the practical threshold to become a city seems to be higher in the three southern New England states than in

6439-449: Is shown on Southack's map of 1717. The present Cape Cod Canal was slowly developed from 1870 to 1914. The federal government purchased it in 1928. Because of early colonial settlement and intensive land use, the Cape's vegetation was depauperate and trees were scarce by the time that Henry Thoreau saw Cape Cod during his four visits over 1849 to 1857,. The settlers heated by fires, and it took 10 to 20 cords (40 to 80 m ) of wood to heat

6576-481: Is sometimes used in New England to describe a distinct, built-up place within a town or city. This may be a town center , which bears the same name as the town or city (almost every town has such a place), or a name related to that of the town, or a completely unrelated name. The town of Barnstable, Massachusetts , for example, includes the villages of Barnstable Village , West Barnstable , Centerville , Marstons Mills , Osterville , Cotuit , and Hyannis . Except for

6713-469: Is sufficiently populated to be covered by a town or a city. In colonial times, Massachusetts also used the term "plantation" for a community in a pre-town stage of development (Maine originally got the term from Massachusetts, as Maine was part of Massachusetts until 1820, when it became a state via the Missouri Compromise ). The term "plantation" had not been much used in Massachusetts since

6850-424: Is the system which is most similar to that of New England. New England towns are often governed by a town meeting , an assembly of eligible town residents. The great majority of municipal corporations in New England are based on the town model; there, statutory forms based on the concept of a compact populated place are uncommon, though elsewhere in the U.S. they are prevalent. County government in New England states

6987-425: Is typically weak, and in some states nonexistent. Connecticut , for example, has no county governments , nor does Rhode Island . Both of those states retain counties only as geographic subdivisions with no governmental authority, while Massachusetts has abolished eight of fourteen county governments so far. Counties serve mostly as dividing lines for the states' judicial systems and some other state services in

SECTION 50

#1732782534824

7124-655: The 1944 Great Atlantic hurricane and Hurricane Donna in 1960. Other notable storms include the Gale of 1815 , which would likely have been rated a strong hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, and the so-called " Perfect Storm " of October 31, 1991. The February 2013 nor'easter produced winds in excess of 80 miles per hour (130 km/h) and dropped over 24 inches (61 cm) of snow on some parts of Cape Cod. The storm knocked out power to tens of thousands of Cape Cod residents, some for up to two weeks. Cape Cod has been

7261-605: The Blizzard of 2005 and Hurricane Bob . Because of the influence of the Atlantic Ocean on three sides, temperatures are typically a few degrees lower in the summer and often several degrees higher in the winter than the adjacent mainland. Two ocean currents (the Gulf Stream , a warm ocean current from the south, and the Labrador Current , a cold ocean current from the north), meander and interact with each other. As

7398-635: The Delineator . Guglielmo Marconi made the first transatlantic wireless transmission originating in the United States from Cape Cod, at Wellfleet . The beach below the bluffs where his station was located is now called Marconi Beach . In 1914, he began construction of a new transatlantic wireless receiver station in Chatham and a companion transmitter station in Marion . In 1920, the stations were acquired by RCA and, in 1921, Chatham began operations as

7535-568: The Nauset Light , which has been owned since 1997 by the Cape Cod National Seashore (National Park Service) and operated since 2004 in partnership between that agency and the non-profit Nauset Light Preservation Society. In 1996, both Highland Light and Nauset Light were moved further from the shore because they were each at risk of being lost due to erosion by the sea. Highland Light, then 110 ft (34 m) from

7672-820: The New Bedford Secondary and passes through the town of Dartmouth before terminating in Westport. Interchange was with Mass Coastal in New Bedford. In November 2023, Mass Coastal indicated that it had agreed to purchase the Millis Branch and Watuppa Branch from Bay Colony and operate the lines, ending all remaining operations by the Bay Colony. However, on December 15, the Surface Transportation Board (STB) rejected

7809-581: The Outer Lands , or more obscurely as the "Isles of Stirling". Geologically speaking, Cape Cod is quite young, having been laid down some 16,000 to 20,000 years ago. Most of Cape Cod's geological history involves the advance and retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in the late Pleistocene geological era and the subsequent changes in sea level. Using radiocarbon dating techniques, researchers have determined that around 23,000 years ago,

7946-508: The United States Census Bureau (which recognizes some villages as census-designated places and tabulates census data for them). Towns with an example of the former, such as Richmond, Rhode Island , do not have a post office themselves, but instead use villages in town or villages in nearby towns as a mailing address. This leads to a weaker town identification in such towns, with residents more strongly identifying with

8083-549: The United States Census Bureau does not classify New England towns as "incorporated places". They are instead classified as " minor civil divisions " (MCDs), the same category into which civil townships fall. The Census Bureau classifies New England towns in this manner because they are conceptually similar to civil townships from a geographic standpoint, typically exhibiting similar population-distribution patterns. Like civil townships, but unlike most incorporated municipalities in other states, New England towns do not usually represent

8220-446: The 1840s, and for many years prior to the 1860s Vermont had just one city. Even Massachusetts, historically New England's most populous state, did not have any cities until 1822, when Boston was granted a city form of government by the state legislature. In most of New England, population is not a determining factor for what makes a city or town, and there are many examples of towns with larger populations than nearby cities. Massachusetts

8357-717: The 18th and 19th centuries as what might be termed "future towns", but never saw enough settlement to actually commence operation of a formal town government. All three of the northern New England states also include at least one unorganized township that was once a town but has disincorporated and reverted to unorganized territory, generally due to population loss. Maine also has some unorganized townships that were once organized as plantations. Maine has significantly more unorganized territory than Vermont or New Hampshire. Fewer than 100 Vermont residents and fewer than 250 New Hampshire residents live in unorganized areas. In Maine, by contrast, about 10,000 residents live in unorganized areas. As

SECTION 60

#1732782534824

8494-497: The 18th century. Massachusetts also once had "districts", which served much the same purpose. They were considered to be incorporated, but lacked the full privileges of a town. On August 23, 1775, in order for more representation for the Revolutionary War, 36 towns in Massachusetts and 6 in Maine were incorporated, effectively eliminating the district meaning. Maine and Rhode Island are also known to have made limited use of

8631-457: The 1970s, through home-rule petition, adopted corporate charters approved by the state legislature with forms of government that resemble city government and do not include elements traditionally associated with town government (especially, a board of selectmen and a town meeting). Of the fourteen communities that have done so, all but three call themselves a "town" in their municipal operations, and are usually referred to by residents as "towns", but

8768-640: The 19th century. Improved rail transportation made the towns of the Upper Cape, such as Bourne and Falmouth , accessible to Bostonians . At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Northeastern mercantile elite built many large, shingled "cottages" along Buzzards Bay . The relaxed summer environment offered by Cape Cod was highlighted by writers including Joseph C. Lincoln , who published novels and countless short stories about Cape Cod folks in popular magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post and

8905-450: The 20th century, however. One late instance was the separation of Sugar Hill, New Hampshire , from the town of Lisbon in 1962. It has not taken place anywhere in New England in the last fifty years; boundary changes of any type are fairly rare. Towns are the basic building block of the New England municipality system, although several other types of municipalities also exist. Every New England state has cities . In addition, Maine also has

9042-626: The Bay Colony ceased operation on those lines, but continued to maintain operations in other areas of the state, namely the Millis branch (until 2018) and the Watuppa branch. The Bay Colony Railroad maintained its headquartered in Braintree, Massachusetts , and owned 6 miles (9.7 km) of active trackage within Massachusetts. Bay Colony continued operations along the Millis Branch , a roughly eight-mile segment of track between Needham Junction and

9179-649: The Bourne Bridge to the west, and the Sagamore to the east. The bridges form a bottleneck, resulting in traffic backups of several miles during the tourist season - especially going on-cape at the beginning of the weekend and off-cape at the end of the weekend. The entire Cape is roughly bisected lengthwise by U.S. Route 6 , locally known as the Mid-Cape Highway and officially as the Grand Army of

9316-478: The CDP. At the same time, not all built-up places with significant populations are recognized as CDPs. The Census Bureau has historically recognized relatively few CDPs within urbanized areas in particular. Many towns located in such areas do not contain any recognized CDPs and will thus be completely absent from Census materials presenting the population of "places". Greenwich, Connecticut, is one prominent example. While

9453-432: The Cape have evolved from whaling and trading areas to become resort destinations, attracting wealthy families, celebrities, and tourists. These include the large nearby islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard . Both islands are also famous summer tourist destinations, commonly accessed by ferry from several locations on the cape. The phrases Cape Cod and the Islands and the Cape and Islands are often used to describe

9590-410: The Census Bureau, can be another source of confusion. The Census classifications should not be understood to imply that cities are incorporated but towns are not, or that cities and towns represent two fundamentally different types of entities. The Census classifies New England municipalities strictly based on whether they are towns or cities, with no regard to the actual population-distribution pattern in

9727-452: The Census only counts cities and certain fully urbanized towns as "places" in its categorization. In other towns, those with small built-up central villages, the Census designates one or more census-designated places (CDPs) and considers all other land to be parts of "minor civil divisions". This classification is done only for the Census's own data analysis, and otherwise has no connection to

9864-473: The Gulf of Maine, which includes the waters between the Cape and Nova Scotia. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east of Cape Cod, and to the southwest of the Cape is Buzzards Bay . The Cape Cod Canal, completed in 1916, connects Buzzards Bay to Cape Cod Bay; its creation shortened the trade route between New York and Boston by 62 miles (100 km). Cape Cod extends 65 miles (105 km) into the Atlantic Ocean, with

10001-527: The Killingly portion was renamed Danielson by the General Assembly. There are no legal restrictions in Connecticut that would prevent a city or borough today from similarly overlaying the territory of more than one town, provided it is not consolidated with one of the underlying towns. Cities actually developed earlier in Connecticut than in the other New England states, and were originally based on

10138-641: The Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth's Office considers all fourteen to be legally cities. Other sources within state government often refer to all fourteen municipalities as towns, however. The U.S. Census Bureau listed all as towns through the 1990 Census. For the 2000 Census, some were listed by the Federal government as towns and some as cities, a situation that continues in Census materials since 2000. Massachusetts appears to be

10275-639: The Republic Highway. New England town The town is the basic unit of local government and local division of state authority in the six New England states. Most other U.S. states lack a direct counterpart to the New England town. New England towns overlie the entire area of a state, similar to civil townships in other states where they exist, but they are fully functioning municipal corporations , possessing powers similar to cities and counties in other states. New Jersey's system of equally powerful townships, boroughs, towns, and cities

10412-631: The Spanish crown. In 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold named the tip Cape Cod, the surviving term and the ninth oldest English place-name in the U.S. Samuel de Champlain charted its sand-silted harbors in 1606, and Henry Hudson landed there in 1609. Captain John Smith noted it on his map of 1614, and at last the Pilgrims entered the "Cape Harbor" and made their first landing near Provincetown on November 11, 1620. They had their first encounter with

10549-472: The Statistics and Superlatives section below), further blurs matters. To fill in some of the "place" data, the Census Bureau sometimes recognizes census-designated places (CDPs) within New England towns. These often correspond to town centers or other villages, although not all such areas are recognized as CDPs. In cases where a town is entirely or almost entirely built-up, the Census sometimes recognizes

10686-517: The Town of ..." Greenfield, in December 2017, dropped the "town" designation, which some called "embarrassing" and which legislators said made paperwork more difficult. Common parlance labeling a community a "city" or a "town" may have more to do with its current size, whether its current size or its historical size and reputation. In addition to towns and cities, Maine has a third type of town-like municipality not found in any other New England state,

10823-527: The Town of Greenwich appears in MCD materials, the Census Bureau does not recognize Greenwich as a "place". In New Hampshire and Vermont, the Census Bureau treats each individual unorganized entity (township, gore, grant, etc.) as an MCD. In Maine, it seems, due to the extent of unorganized area, the Census Bureau typically lumps contiguous townships, gores, and the like together into larger units called "unorganized territories" (UTs), which are then treated as MCDs. In

10960-611: The U.S., except that it uses the town as its basic unit rather than the county. Even though the Census Bureau does not treat New England towns as "incorporated places", it does classify cities in New England as such. The rationale behind this is that cities are likely to be more thoroughly built-up and therefore more readily comparable to cities in other states than towns are. Boroughs in Connecticut and incorporated villages in Vermont are also treated as incorporated places. That New England states, in general, regard cities and towns on equal footing, yet they are handled in two different ways by

11097-564: The US Census Bureau treats Groton Long Point as a borough, as an act of the state legislature gives it the same powers as a borough, although it has never formally organized as one. They were once more numerous. Many of those that remain are very small. Connecticut also has at least one remaining city ( Groton ) that is within, but not coextensive with, its parent town . A second non-coextensive city, Winsted , still exists on paper, but its government has been consolidated with that of

11234-417: The actual organization or legal status of New England towns. The census bureau does uniquely recognize towns, however, in that it classifies metropolitan areas in New England on the basis of town boundaries rather than county boundaries as it does in other parts of the U.S. Unique to New England is the New England city and town area , which is analogous to Metropolitan Statistical Areas in other parts of

11371-678: The base of the peninsula, though small portions of the Cape Cod towns of Bourne and Sandwich lie on the mainland side of the canal. Two highway bridges cross the Cape Cod Canal: the Sagamore Bridge and the Bourne Bridge . In addition, the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge carries railway freight and provides limited passenger service onto the Cape. Like Cape Cod itself, the islands south of

11508-505: The borough concept. At one time, all cities were non-coextensive; the practice of making cities coextensive with their towns was a later adaptation intended to mimic the city concept that had emerged in the other New England states. Over time, many non-coextensive cities have expanded to become coextensive with their parent town. As with boroughs, many have also disincorporated and reverted to full town control. These two trends have combined to make non-coextensive cities very rare in recent times;

11645-591: The boundaries of Barnstable County, includes portions of the towns of Bourne and Sandwich that are located north of the canal. Cape Cod Bay lies in between Cape Cod and the mainland – bounded on the north by a line between Provincetown and Marshfield . North of Cape Cod Bay (and Provincetown) is Massachusetts Bay , which contains the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary , located 5 miles (8 km) north of Provincetown. Cape Cod Bay and Massachusetts Bay are both part of

11782-653: The boundary with New York State , housing the Stratford Shoal Light , is not part of any town and is administered directly by the United States Coast Guard . In general, inhabited minor off-shore islands are administered as part of a nearby town and in some cases, are their own independent towns, such as the town of Gosnold , Massachusetts, which encompasses the Elizabeth Islands . Unlike municipalities in most other states,

11919-415: The built-up area around a town center as a CDP, resulting in a CDP that bears the same name as the town. In these cases, data for the CDP is, in general, meaningless to local residents, who seldom draw any particular distinction between the built-up area around the town center and outlying areas of the town. A local source citing data for such a community will almost always use the data for the entire town, not

12056-565: The coast with no obstruction. Consequently, the sediment and sand from the beaches are being washed away and deposited elsewhere. While this destroys land in some places, it creates land elsewhere, most noticeably in marshes where sediment is deposited by flowing water. Cape Cod's aquifer consists of six hydrologically independent lenses from which all the towns on the Cape obtain drinking water (except Falmouth, which, in 2015, drew 43.5% of its water from Long Pond). Contamination with industrial chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs from septic systems

12193-434: The district concept. Districts have not been at all common since the first half of the 19th century, and there have not been any districts anywhere in New England in over a century. Maine is the only New England state that currently has a significant amount of territory that is not sufficiently populated to support town governments; thus, it is the only New England state that still needs the plantation type of municipality. For

12330-431: The early 20th century) is claimed by some to have been visited by Leif Eiriksson , and a stone wall discovered in Provincetown in 1805 is also claimed to have been built by his younger brother Thorvald Eiriksson around AD 1007, when the keel of his ship was repaired in the harbor, according to Norse sagas . He was killed later in the same journey and is said to have been returned to this spot for burial. However, there

12467-529: The east-facing Atlantic seacoast of Cape Cod consists of wide, sandy beaches. In 1961, a significant portion of this coastline, already slated for housing subdivisions, was made a part of the Cape Cod National Seashore by President John F. Kennedy . It was protected from private development and preserved for public use. Large portions are open to the public, including the Marconi Site in Wellfleet . This

12604-400: The evolution of cities in those states. In Connecticut in particular, the historical development of cities was quite different from in the other New England states, and at least technically, the relationship between towns and cities is today different from elsewhere in New England. Just as boroughs in Connecticut overlay towns, so do cities; for example, while Hartford is commonly thought of as

12741-490: The exception rather than the rule in the New England system, and the number of New England residents who live in them is extremely small in comparison to those who live in towns and cities, even in Maine. Most such areas are located in very sparsely populated regions. Much of the barely inhabited interior of Maine is unorganized, for example. The majority of the unincorporated areas in New Hampshire are in Coos County , and

12878-654: The federal government in 1975 and again in 1990 for official recognition of the Mashpee Wampanoag as a tribe. In May 2007, the Wampanoag tribe was federally recognized. Cape Cod was a landmark for early explorers. It may have been the "Promontory of Vinland " mentioned by the Norse voyagers (985–1025), although this is disputed. The Manomet River area (taken up by the western end of the Cape Cod Canal in

13015-508: The former Millis station . This line interchanges with CSX at Medfield. By May 2018, Bay Colony had ceased regular operations of this branch following the closure of GAF Roofing, the biggest customer on the line. Bay Colony also operated along the Watuppa Branch (also referred to as the North Dartmouth Industrial Track), a roughly six-mile stretch of track in the south coast of the state. The branch diverges from

13152-583: The grassy dunes of coastal Massachusetts, only to watch "in horror as the denuded sands 'walked' over richer lands, burying cultivated fields and fences." Dunes on the outer Cape became more common, and many harbors filled in with eroded soils. By 1800, much of Cape Cod's firewood had to be transported by boat from Maine . The paucity of vegetation was worsened by the raising of merino sheep that reached its peak in New England around 1840. The early Industrial Revolution occurred through much of Massachusetts and Rhode Island , but it mostly bypassed Cape Cod due to

13289-438: The home of the indigenous Wampanoag for centuries prior to European colonization . They lived from the sea and were accomplished farmers. They understood the principles of sustainable forest management , and were known to light controlled fires to keep the underbrush in check. They helped the Pilgrims , who arrived in the fall of 1620, survive at their new Plymouth Colony . The Wampanoag gradually lost their lands during

13426-451: The human race. There is something about a lighted beacon that suggests hope and trust and appeals to the better instincts of mankind." Edward Rowe Snow Beginning in 1797, lighthouses were erected along Cape Cod to aid in navigation. Highland Light (or Cape Cod Light) is the oldest and tallest of these, and remains as one of a number of working lighthouses on Cape Cod and the Islands. Many of Cape Cod's earliest lighthouses featured

13563-805: The hundreds. While these were not large communities, they were large enough to realistically operate a town government if they wanted to, but simply elected not to. In Vermont and New Hampshire, disincorporation has, in general, not been brought up for discussion unless a town's population has approached single digits. In general, coastal waters in the New England states are administered directly by either state or federal agencies and are not part of any town. Several towns, however, have chosen to include all or part of their corresponding coastal waters in their territory. Coastal waters include human-made structures built within them. In Connecticut, for example, an artificial, uninhabited island in Long Island Sound at

13700-420: The ice sheet reached its maximum southward advance over North America, and then started to retreat. Many kettle ponds – clear, cold lakes – were formed and remain on Cape Cod as a result of the receding glacier. By about 18,000 years ago, the ice sheet had retreated past Cape Cod. By roughly 15,000 years ago, it had retreated past southern New England. With so much of Earth's water locked up in massive ice sheets,

13837-490: The incorporated villages in Vermont, these "villages" are not incorporated municipalities and should not be understood as such. Towns do sometimes grant a certain measure of recognition to such areas, using highway signs that identify them as "villages", for example. These informal "villages" also sometimes correspond to underlying special-purpose districts such as fire or water districts, which are separately incorporated quasi-municipal entities that provide specific services within

13974-407: The islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket is the lowest in the southern New England region, averaging slightly less than 40 inches (100 cm) a year (most parts of New England average 42 to 46 inches (110 to 120 cm)). This is due to the maritime influence inhibiting summertime thunderstorm development and maintenance. The region does not experience a greater number of sunny days, however, as

14111-464: The largest municipalities in the region are titled as cities. Across New England as a whole, only about 5% of all incorporated municipalities are cities. Cities are more common in the three southern New England states, which are much more densely populated, than they are in the three northern New England states. In early colonial times, all incorporated municipalities in New England were towns; there were no cities. Springfield, Massachusetts , for instance,

14248-565: The majority of the peninsula from the mainland. Most agencies, including the Cape Cod Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), treat the Cape as an island with regard to disaster preparedness, groundwater management, and the like. Cape Codders tend to refer to the land on the mainland side of the canal as "off-Cape", though the legal delineation of Cape Cod, coincident to

14385-618: The majority of the unincorporated areas in Vermont are in Essex County . Two additional counties in New Hampshire and three additional counties in Vermont contain smaller amounts of unincorporated territory. In Maine, eight of the state's sixteen counties contain significant amounts of unorganized territory (in essence, those counties in the northern and interior parts of the state). Four other counties contain smaller amounts. Most of these areas have no local government at all; indeed, some have no permanent population whatsoever. Some areas have

14522-515: The native inhabitants in nearby Eastham . Cape Cod was among the first places settled by Puritan colonists in North America. The Cape's fifteen towns developed slowly, aside from Barnstable (1639), Sandwich (1637), and Yarmouth (1639). The final town to be established on the Cape was Bourne in 1884, breaking off from Sandwich. Provincetown was a group of huts until the 18th century. A channel from Massachusetts Bay to Buzzards Bay

14659-567: The northeast to Woods Hole in the southwest, and is bordered by Plymouth to the northwest. The Cape is divided into fifteen towns , several of which are in turn made up of multiple named villages. Cape Cod forms the southern boundary of the Gulf of Maine , which extends north-eastward to Nova Scotia . Since 1914, most of Cape Cod has been separated from the mainland by the Cape Cod Canal . The canal cuts 7 miles (11 km) roughly across

14796-408: The northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The name Cape Cod, coined in 1602 by Bartholomew Gosnold , is the ninth oldest English place-name in the U.S. As defined by the Cape Cod Commission 's enabling legislation, Cape Cod is coextensive with Barnstable County, Massachusetts . It extends from Provincetown in

14933-402: The number of cloudy days is the same as inland locales, in addition to increased fog. On average, roughly 27 inches (69 cm) of snow, which is about 17 inches (43 cm) less than Boston, falls in an average winter. Once every five or six years, a tropical storm , accompanied by very high and potentially damaging winds and heavy rain, will strike the region. About once every 11 or 12 years

15070-483: The ocean, was moved 450 ft (140 m) to the west, and Nauset Light, 37 ft (11 m) from the bluff, was moved 300 ft (91 m) west. The lighthouses of Cape Cod include: Cape Cod is connected to the mainland by a pair of canal-spanning highway bridges, the Bourne and Sagamore that were constructed in the 1930s (replacing a 1912 drawbridge). The two parallel road bridges are four miles apart, with

15207-443: The only New England state where this issue has arisen, though other New England states also have municipalities that have adopted what amounts to city forms of government but continue to call themselves "towns". In the other New England states, it does not appear that any need to officially label such municipalities as "cities" has been identified. For purposes of determining the "largest town" and "smallest city", in this article, only

15344-530: The only one currently incorporated is the city of Groton , located in the southwestern part of the town of Groton, Connecticut . In Vermont, if a village becomes a city, it does not continue to overlay its parent town, but breaks away and becomes a completely separate municipality. Most cities in Vermont today are actually former villages rather than former towns, and are much smaller than a typical town in terms of land area. The above process has created several instances where there are adjacent towns and cities with

15481-404: The open ocean, the Cape and islands are subject to considerable coastal erosion . Due to erosion, the Cape will be completely submerged by the sea within several thousand years. This erosion causes the washout of beaches and the destruction of the barrier islands; for example, the ocean broke through the barrier island at Chatham during Hurricane Bob in 1991, allowing waves and storm surge to hit

15618-411: The original existing towns. This was an especially common practice during the 18th and early 19th centuries. More heavily populated areas were often subdivided on multiple occasions. As a result, towns and cities in urbanized areas are often smaller in terms of land area than an average town in a rural area. Formation of new towns in this manner slowed in the later part of the 19th century and early part of

15755-485: The peninsula is split between USDA hardiness zones 7a (Upper and Mid Cape) and 7b (Lower and Outer Cape). Consequently, many subtropical indicator plant species typically found in more southerly latitudes are grown there, including Camellias , Ilex opaca , Magnolia grandiflora and Albizia julibrissin . However, Cape Cod falls below the 72 °F (22 °C) threshold, as the warmest month, July, averages around 68.25 °F (20.14 °C). Cape Cod's climate

15892-554: The period of European incursion through land cessions and violent conflict with white settlers. The documentary Natives of the Narrowland (1993), narrated by actress Julie Harris , shows the history of the Wampanoag people through Cape Cod archaeological sites. In 1974, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council was formed to articulate the concerns of those with Native American ancestry. They petitioned

16029-524: The plantation. A plantation is, in essence, a town-like community that does not have enough population to require full town government or services. Plantations are organized at the county level and typically found in sparsely populated areas. There is no bright-line population divider between a town and a plantation, but no plantation currently has any more than about 300 residents. Plantations are considered to be "organized" but not "incorporated." Not all counties have them; in some southern counties, all territory

16166-517: The rains, and disintegrated by the wind, it still stands bold." Henry Beston , The Outermost House The bulk of the land on Cape Cod consists of glacial landforms , formed by terminal moraine and outwash plains . This represents the southernmost extent of glacial coverage in southeast New England; similar glacial formations make up Long Island in New York and Block Island in Rhode Island . Together, these formations are known as

16303-421: The relationship between towns and cities in Connecticut is different from the other New England states, at least on paper; thus, in the technical sense, all 169 of the above municipalities are really towns, with 20 overlaid by a coextensive city or borough of the same name.) Together, these 169 municipalities cover the entire state. There is no unincorporated territory, but, as in all New England states, there are

16440-439: The remaining 32 are organized as plantations. These 485 organized municipalities together cover much of, but not all of, the state's territory. Of Maine's sixteen counties, only four are entirely incorporated. Four other counties are almost entirely incorporated, but include small amounts of unincorporated/unorganized territory (three of these four counties were entirely incorporated or organized at one time, but lost that status when

16577-506: The same name. In all cases, the city was originally the "town center" of the town, but later incorporated as a city and became a separate municipality. All three of the northern New England states ( Vermont , New Hampshire , and Maine ) contain some areas that are unincorporated and unorganized, not part of any town, city or plantation. Maine has significantly more such area than the other two states. While these areas do exist, their importance should not be overstated. They are certainly

16714-402: The sea level was high enough to start eroding the glacial deposits that the vanished continental ice sheet had left on Cape Cod. The water transported the eroded deposits north and south along the outer Cape's shoreline through a process known as longshore drift . Those reworked sediments that moved north went to the tip of Cape Cod. The entire town of Provincetown, at the extreme tip of the Cape,

16851-473: The sea level was lower. Truro's bayside beaches used to be a petrified forest before it became a beach. As the ice began to melt, the sea began to rise. Initially, sea level rose quickly, about 15 metres (49 ft) per 1,000 years, but then the rate declined. On Cape Cod, sea level rose roughly 3 metres (9.8 ft) per millennium between 6,000 and 2,000 years ago. After that, it continued to rise at about 1 metre (3.3 ft) per millennium. By 6,000 years ago,

16988-399: The south of Cape Cod lie Nantucket Sound ; Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard , both large islands; and the mostly privately owned Elizabeth Islands . For most of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, Cape Cod was considered to consist of three sections (see map): "East of America, there stands in the open Atlantic the last fragment of an ancient and vanished land. Worn by the breakers and

17125-651: The southern New England states while providing varying (but generally limited) services in the more sparsely populated three northern New England states. Towns date back to the time of the earliest English colonial settlement , which predominated in New England, and they pre-date the development of counties in the region. Areas were organized as towns as they were settled, throughout the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Town boundaries were not usually laid out on any kind of regular grid, but were drawn to reflect local settlement and transportation patterns, often affected by natural features. In early colonial times, recognition of towns

17262-457: The three northern New England states. In Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, almost every city has at least 10,000 people, and all but a few have at least 20,000. In Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, however, there are a number of cities with fewer than 10,000 people, and there are five (three in Maine and two in Vermont) with fewer than 5,000. Over time, some of the distinctions between

17399-399: The time of the 2000 Census, Maine had 22 cities, 434 towns, and 34 plantations, for a total of 490 organized municipalities. Also since the 2010 Census, Sanford adopted a new charter that included designation as a city.) Massachusetts contains 351 municipal corporations, consisting of cities and towns. These 351 municipalities together encompass the entire territory of Massachusetts; there

17536-442: The tip of the Cape. This region is historically and collectively known by naturalists as the Outer Lands . Cape Cod incorporates all of Barnstable County, which comprises 15 towns: Bourne , Sandwich , Falmouth , Mashpee , Barnstable , Yarmouth , Harwich , Dennis , Brewster , Chatham , Orleans , Eastham , Wellfleet , Truro , and Provincetown . Each of these towns includes a number of villages; see Barnstable County for

17673-444: The town of Winchester for many years, making it more of a special-purpose district than a true municipality. Winsted is no longer recognized by the Census Bureau as an incorporated place, although data is tabulated for a Census Designated Place that is coextensive with that of the original city. As of the 2020 census, Maine contains 485 organized municipalities, of which 23 are incorporated as cities, 430 are incorporated as towns, and

17810-540: The transfer of Millis Branch operations due to uncertainty about the status of the line. Mass Coastal announced the purchase of the Bay Colony was final in February 2024, excluding the Millis Branch which remained held up by legal issues. The STB approved the Millis Branch transfer in June 2024. Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts , in

17947-621: The usual town structure, sometimes in areas where it was probably not contemplated that towns would ever develop. Over time, those located in more populated areas were, in general, annexed to neighboring towns or incorporated as towns in their own right. No such areas exist today in Massachusetts, Connecticut or Rhode Island, but some remain in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. All three of the northern New England states contain some town-sized unorganized entities, referred to as "unorganized townships" (sometimes, just "townships") or "unorganized towns". Most of these are areas that were drawn up on maps in

18084-451: The village they live in. However, villages or CDPs have no existence as general-purpose municipalities separate from the town (if they even have any legal existence at all), and are usually regarded by local residents as a part of the town in which they are located, less important than the whole. It is possible for a Connecticut borough or Vermont village to become a city. In Connecticut, cities overlay towns just as boroughs do, and, just like

18221-478: The whole region of Barnstable County, Dukes County (including Martha's Vineyard and the smaller Elizabeth Islands ), and Nantucket County. Several small islands right off Cape Cod, including Monomoy Island , Monomoscoy Island , Popponesset Island , and Seconsett Island , are also in Barnstable County. The Forbes family -owned Naushon Island was first purchased by John Murray Forbes . Naushon

18358-591: Was a town for the first two centuries of its existence. The entire land areas of Connecticut and Rhode Island had been divided into towns by the late 18th century, and Massachusetts was almost completely covered early in the 19th century. By 1850, the only New England state that still had large unincorporated areas was Maine ; by the end of the 19th century, most areas in Maine that could realistically be settled had been organized into towns. Early town organization in Vermont and much of New Hampshire proceeded in

18495-467: Was first used in 1602, applied only to the very tip of the peninsula. It remained that way for 125 years until the "Precinct of Cape Cod" was incorporated as the Town of Provincetown. No longer in "official" use over the ensuing decades, the name came to mean all of the land east of the Manomet and Scusset rivers – essentially along the line that became the Cape Cod Canal. The creation of the canal separated

18632-442: Was settled as a "plantation" (in colonial Massachusetts, the term was synonymous with town) as early as 1636, but the city of Springfield was not established until 1852. The oldest cities in New England date to the last few decades of the 18th century, (e.g. New Haven, Connecticut , was chartered as a city in 1784). In New England, cities were not widespread until well into the 19th century. New Hampshire did not have any cities until

18769-431: Was very informal, generally connected to local church divisions. By 1700, colonial governments had become more involved in the official establishment of new towns. Towns were typically governed by a town meeting form of government, as many still are today. Towns originally were the only form of incorporated municipality in New England. The city form of government was not introduced until much later. Boston , for instance,

#823176