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42-481: Long Point is a peninsula located in Provincetown, Massachusetts , United States, at the extreme tip of Cape Cod , as it curls back in on itself to create Provincetown Harbor . The Long Point Light was built on this point in 1827. The lighthouse once shared this peninsula with a settlement of fishermen that came to be known as Long Point, Massachusetts . This Provincetown village grew and thrived from 1818 until

84-526: A gaff-rig with triangular foresail(s) and a gaff rigged mainsail . In naval terminology, " sloop-of-war " refers to the purpose of the craft, rather than to the specific size or sail-plan , and thus a sloop should not be confused with a sloop-of-war. The term is also used loosely with other sail plans, as with the Friendship Sloop , which is a cutter . The name originates from the Dutch sloep , which

126-519: A " Cape Cod style lighthouse" – had deteriorated to such a poor condition that it might be destroyed by a strong storm. In 1875, that light was replaced with the brick tower that stands today. Even though the Army had moved out, they retained title to the land. Nevertheless, at around the same time that the lighthouse was rebuilt, the Cape Cod Oil Works built a cod fish oil and whale oil factory in

168-564: A 90-day tour of duty at the post from May through August 1864. Most of the men reenlisted for another 100-day tour, this time as the 21st Unattached Company from August through November. In November 1864, they enlisted once again for a full year, but they were mustered out at the end of June 1865, as the war had come to an end. The enlisted barracks was floated across the harbor postwar, and still exists as 473 Commercial Street in Provincetown. The batteries on Long Point remained operational until

210-469: A company of soldiers, an officer's quarters, and stables were constructed south of the inner battery. The batteries were designed by and built under the supervision of Major Charles E. Blunt of the United States Army Corps of Engineers . The Army, however, did not actually "construct" the officer's quarters – instead, the company's three officers were headquartered in the last remaining house from

252-505: A growing consumer preference for ice harvesting and storage. John Atwood Jr., the son of Long Point's founder, boasted that "In 1848 I brought the first mackerel ever received on ice to Boston. It was August. I took them in the sloop smack American Eagle ." He later pioneered the use of a jib topsail to shorten his time-to-market, so as to meet the growing appetite for fresh-caught fish. Living on Long Point presented its own share of challenges as well. The geography of Provincetown as

294-418: A legend key to the numbers. That list, which includes the names of each home/store owner, gives one a good sense of the extent of the community at that time. Peninsula The word peninsula derives from Latin paeninsula , from paene  'almost' and insula  'island'. The word entered English in the 16th century. A peninsula is generally defined as

336-402: A mile of water on casks. And that was the end of the community of Long Point. Many of those historic "floater homes", as they came to be called, are still standing in Provincetown's West End, and can be identified by a distinctive blue and white plaque that indicates the home's historic journey. The schoolhouse was among the last buildings to leave Long Point; it was moved to Commercial Street in

378-520: A natural barrier to protect Provincetown and its harbor from many storm hazards, the point bears the brunt of such a storm when it does so: This sickle of sand which encloses one of the finest harbors on the North Atlantic was so narrow that encroaching storms played havoc with it and threatened at one time to sweep the narrow point away. It was too valuable a harbor to be destroyed and the government took it over. Sources differ and remain unclear as to

420-548: A piece of land surrounded on most sides by water. A peninsula may be bordered by more than one body of water, and the body of water does not have to be an ocean or a sea. A piece of land on a very tight river bend or one between two rivers is sometimes said to form a peninsula, for example in the New Barbadoes Neck in New Jersey , United States. A peninsula may be connected to the mainland via an isthmus , for example, in

462-412: A sand route, which, together with the backshore route, would occasionally be washed out by storms. Prior to the railroad's arrival in 1873, Provincetown was like an island, in that it relied almost entirely upon the sea for its communication, travel, and commerce needs. All of this was doubly true of Long Point, being isolated from its own nearest neighbor, the rest of the town of Provincetown. To reach

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504-404: A whole made for an isolating existence throughout most of its history, as the town was essentially cut off, not just from the mainland , but in many ways, even from neighboring towns on Cape Cod. The town was surrounded by water in every direction: Until late in the 19th century, there was not a single road leading in or out of Provincetown – the only way to travel by land to the rest of Cape Cod

546-430: Is advantageous because it gives hunting access to both land and sea animals. They can also serve as markers of a nation's borders. Sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig , and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sails fore and aft, or as

588-452: Is now visible atop the earthworks of the outer battery is a cross that honors the memory of Staff Sgt. Charles Darby – "an unsung soldier who loved the dunes". Darby was killed in action over the Netherlands in 1944. The image below shows the layout of the houses, stores and saltworks on Long Point as they existed in 1857. Clicking the image will lead not only to a larger image, but also to

630-544: Is related to the Old English slūpan , to glide. A sloop is usually regarded as a single-masted rig with a single headsail and a fore-and-aft mainsail. In this form, the sloop is the commonest of all sailing rigs – with the Bermuda sloop being the default rig for leisure craft, being used on types that range from simple cruising dinghies to large racing yachts with high-tech sail fabrics and large powerful winches. If

672-474: Is standing to-day, used by the Cape Cod Oil Works, the only buildings now left excepting the lighthouse." The exact date of the factory's closing is unknown, but official Army correspondence in 1917 makes no mention of it. The only known photograph of the factory, taken in 1891 and retrieved from the National Archives and Records Administration is inscribed with the words "Condemned ... 1919". An oil house

714-529: The Arabian Peninsula ), while a convergent boundary may also form peninsulas (e.g. Gibraltar or the Indian subcontinent ). Peninsulas can also form due to sedimentation in rivers. When a river carrying sediment flows into an ocean, the sediment is deposited, forming a delta peninsula. Marine transgressions (changes in sea level) may form peninsulas, but also may affect existing peninsulas. For example,

756-481: The Cape Cod Standard Times tells the following variation of the story: Perhaps the inhabitants grew tired of sharks sunning themselves on their front lawns, perhaps sea creatures carried off their pet dogs and cats; whatever the reason the citizens of Long Point scheduled a colossal moving day. The women packed the household possessions in dories, while the men floated the houses and public buildings across

798-635: The Isthmus of Corinth which connects to the Peloponnese peninsula. DON'T FORGET OR ELSE Peninsulas can be formed from continental drift , glacial erosion , glacial meltwater , glacial deposition , marine sediment , marine transgressions , volcanoes, divergent boundaries or river sedimentation. More than one factor may play into the formation of a peninsula. For example, in the case of Florida , continental drift, marine sediment, and marine transgressions were all contributing factors to its shape. In

840-400: The area that had been the barracks. As the land was still a military reservation, the Army tried to have the factory removed a number of times in the ensuing years. Records from this period are scarce, but Army archives indicate that the factory was still operating in the middle of 1883 – another source from 1890 states that "John Atwood built a wharf on the north side of the point, which

882-630: The case of formation from glaciers (e.g., the Antarctic Peninsula or Cape Cod ), peninsulas can be created due to glacial erosion , meltwater or deposition . If erosion formed the peninsula, softer and harder rocks were present, and since the glacier only erodes softer rock, it formed a basin . This may create peninsulas, and occurred for example in the Keweenaw Peninsula . In the case of formation from meltwater, melting glaciers deposit sediment and form moraines , which act as dams for

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924-458: The case of formation from volcanoes, when a volcano erupts magma near water, it may form a peninsula (e.g., the Alaskan Peninsula ). Peninsulas formed from volcanoes are especially common when the volcano erupts near shallow water. Marine sediment may form peninsulas by the creation of limestone . A rift peninsula may form as a result of a divergent boundary in plate tectonics (e.g.

966-566: The center of town. During the War of 1812 , the British navy had controlled Provincetown Harbor. Seeking to correct the lack of fortifications, the U.S. Army surveyed the harbor from 1833 to 1835, and noted that "the point had a large civilian population". The Army returned to build the planned Long Point Battery during the American Civil War. Army documents state that: the point ... was deserted by

1008-453: The closest edge of town from Long Point by land, one had to make a difficult trek across a 3-mile (4.8 km) beach route past Wood End to Herring Cove, and then another mile (1.6 km) over continuously shifting sand dunes. To complicate matters, portions of that route were underwater twice each day with the high tide. Although salt was plentiful, there was no source of fresh water on Long Point. Plank cisterns were built throughout

1050-722: The collection of sea salt was extremely profitable in the first part of the 19th century. Not only was salt shipped out for domestic consumption, but it was also used to supply the fishing industry, which dried and salted the catch to preserve the fish for shipment. The annual output of the saltworks on Long Point reached "five to six hundred hogsheads ", or 280,000–336,000 pounds (127–152 metric tons), "of extra quality salt." That represented just under 10% of Provincetown's total annual salt production of 3.4 million pounds (1,500 metric tons). Production of salt did not retain its lucrative luster for long, however, for downward price pressures had hit that industry from several angles. For one,

1092-563: The completion of the Erie Canal in 1830 meant a sharp increase in competition from companies that were mining massive salt deposits in Syracuse, New York . Local competition had increased as well – by 1837, Provincetown had 78 saltworks, and the selling price had fallen from a high of eight dollars per bushel at the turn of the nineteenth century, down to only one dollar. Around that same time, demand for salt-cured fish began to decline, yielding to

1134-676: The earlier village. On March 5, 1864, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ceded "an indefinite area (approximately 150 acres)" of Long Point to the United States Government. The new barracks housed a company of 98 enlisted soldiers from the Unattached Companies of Massachusetts Volunteer Militia . The 12th Unattached Company, which had been detached from an existing regiment of the Massachusetts Militia , at first served

1176-460: The government earmarked $ 2,500 (roughly $ 67,000 today) to acquire four acres at the extreme tip of the point, and to construct a lighthouse, which was completed in 1827. By 1830, the lighthouse became the site of Long Point's first school, starting with only three children. The Long Point community continued to grow, and by 1846, the Town of Provincetown voted to build a schoolhouse on Long Point. By then,

1218-485: The late 1850s. When the settlers decided to leave Long Point, they took most of their houses with them – about 30 structures in all – by floating them across the harbor. During the Civil War , the military established a defensive coastal artillery post and garrison at this location. The Long Point Battery came to be known as "Fort Useless" and "Fort Ridiculous" among the local residents. Today, nothing remains of

1260-573: The locals. The initial lure that attracted so many fishermen to this area was its proximity to prime fishing grounds, and the amount of fish that could be caught from the shore. Using sweep seines (that were hand-knit by their wives), fishermen caught an abundance of mackerel , shad and bass from shore. There are reports of up to seventy-five 200-pound (91 kg) barrels of white shad caught in one haul, fetching $ 16 per barrel – accounting for inflation, that single haul netted roughly $ 40,700 in today's dollars. By an act of Congress on May 18, 1826,

1302-426: The meltwater. This may create bodies of water that surround the land, forming peninsulas. If deposition formed the peninsula, the peninsula was composed of sedimentary rock , which was created from a large deposit of glacial drift . The hill of drift becomes a peninsula if the hill formed near water but was still connected to the mainland, for example during the formation of Cape Cod about 23,000 years ago. In

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1344-470: The post was abandoned in 1872, but they were never used in combat. In the years following the war, the people of Provincetown, aware that they were protected against an enemy that would never materialize, soon labelled the batteries "Fort Useless" and "Fort Ridiculous". The earthworks of the batteries remain, eroded down to sand dunes. In 1873, a lighthouse inspection revealed that the original wooden light – whose unique architectural design came to be known as

1386-425: The specific reasons for leaving Long Point; it is also unclear whether there was a triggering event which caused a wholesale departure, or whether there was instead a more orderly migration. Sources all agree, however, that beginning in the 1850s, families began to leave Long Point and return to the main town. Most of the families took their houses with them when they left Long Point – the local Deacon's specialty

1428-494: The time construction of two earthwork [artillery] batteries began in early 1863. Construction was completed in December of 1863. The outer battery consisted of three 32-pound [15 kg] guns and a built-in powder magazine . The inner battery, connected to the outer battery by a 1,650-foot [500 m] wooden walkway, consisted of six 32-pound [15 kg] guns and two built-in magazines. A barracks for quartering

1470-428: The vessel has two or more headsails , the term cutter may be used, especially if the mast is stepped further aft. Before the Bermuda rig became popular outside of Bermuda in the early 20th century, a (non-Bermudian) sloop might carry one or more square-rigged topsails which will be hung from a topsail yard and be supported from below by a crossjack. A sloop's headsail may be masthead-rigged or fractional-rigged. On

1512-407: The village of Long Point, except for the lighthouse and an earthen mound, the last remnant from the earlier military post. A fisherman named John Atwood built the first house on Long Point in 1818. He was followed by Prince Freeman, and next by Eldridge Smith. Others soon followed in increasing numbers, and in 1822, Prince Freeman, Jr. became the first child born on "The Point", as it was called by

1554-434: The village to collect and store rain water for daily use. During periods of drought, barrels of water had to be filled up in Provincetown, and then transported over to the point. Beyond the challenges imposed by the occasional drought, however, the residents of Long Point came to recognize the potential for a much greater natural force – one that threatened to impact them with little advance warning. While Long Point provides

1596-613: The village was home to 38 fishing families, with nearly 200 adults and 60 children. In describing the experience of living on Long Point in the early 1800s, one author wrote: It was an exciting neighborhood to live in. Children who might have been afraid of dogs elsewhere, here ran from the sharks. The village had its own post office, a bakery, boat landings for 20 cod-fishing vessels, breakwaters , and several saltworks with nine windmills that were used to pump seawater into about 7,000 or 8,000 feet (2,100 or 2,400 m) of drying pans. With low costs and an endless supply of raw materials,

1638-422: The water level may change, which causes a peninsula to become an island during high water levels. Similarly, wet weather causing higher water levels make peninsulas appear smaller, while dry weather make them appear larger. Sea level rise from global warming will permanently reduce the size of some peninsulas over time. Peninsulas are noted for their use as shelter for humans and Neanderthals . The landform

1680-452: Was built in 1904, in order to properly store the flammable materials used to illuminate the light. Aside from the lighthouse and the oil house, no other structure has survived to the present day. The mound of earth that formed the foundation of the outer battery appears as none other than a sand dune – no other hint of the early settlement, the military post, nor the oil factory can be found on Long Point today. One cultural artifact that

1722-467: Was moving buildings, and the houses, about 30 in all, were placed on rafts and floated across Provincetown Harbor to the town's West End. "They say that so gently were these houses eased off that the moving didn't interfere with the housewife cooking her dinner," wrote Mary Heaton Vorse . By the time of the American Civil War (1861–1865), only two houses were left on Long Point. A 1942 article in

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1764-467: Was to first head north, traversing a series of tall, rolling sand dunes , and to then follow the thin strip of beach along the northern shore line, known as the "backshore". A wooden bridge was erected over the East Harbor in 1854, only to be destroyed by a winter storm and ice two years later. Although the bridge was replaced the following year, a traveler using it still had to traverse several miles over

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