#DonWilding

Seaside storm stories of Nauset, Chatham

Don Wilding

Mar 10, 2018
2 min

Seaside storm stories of Nauset, Chatham

It's been a week since the storm known as "Winter Storm Riley" (I prefer the "March 2018 Northeaster" myself) powered its way over Cape Cod, but the effects are still being felt -- and might be for some time to come. On Friday (March 9), the house just north of Nauset Light, which had been flirting with disaster for time now, was finally demolished. One more bad storm, and over the edge it would have gone. I linked to a photo in my last blog post; here's one that was posted F

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Don Wilding

Mar 9, 2018
2 min

'Acceptable sorrow' after storm

Over the past week, the Outer Beach of Cape Cod was pounded with two northeasters (or "Naw-EAST-ahs", as the locals call them), with another one possibly on tap for Monday. I had the opportunity to check out the meteorological madness at Nauset Light Beach and Coast Guard Beach on March 3. At Nauset Light, I was almost taken out by a rogue wave that powered its way over the dune. The wave knocked me off to the side, while two others fell into the path of the incoming water. O

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Don Wilding

Feb 10, 2018
1 min

Speaking dates added for summer

Over the past week, several speaking dates have been added to my schedule for this summer. There’s also been an engagement added for the spring, which will be my first talk ever in Rhode Island. Here’s what’s been added this past week: APRIL 26, 6:30 P.M.: “Henry Beston’s Cape Cod” comes to the North Kingstown Free Library in North Kingstown, R.I.; JULY 11, 7 P.M.: We’ll probably be in the middle of a summer heat wave, but you can look back at the “Blizzard of ’78” and what h

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Don's Top 20 pix: Vote for your favorite!

Don Wilding

Dec 19, 2017
1 min

Don's Top 20 pix: Vote for your favorite!

Throughout the year, Don's scenic photographs of the Outer Cape often appear on the Don Wilding's Cape Cod social media pages -- Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram -- as well as on the pages of The Cape Codder newspaper. Don has picked out his 20 favorite photos from 2017 and has posted them via an online poll, where you can vote for your favorite. The 20 pictures are shown above, but you have to go to the poll page to vote. Don will post the results sometime on Dec. 31. Thanks

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Don Wilding

Dec 19, 2017
2 min

Take a Cape history journey with Don

Over the last 16 years, I’ve done a lot of talking, writing, and lecturing about the history of Outer Cape Cod. If you’re interested in learning even more on this subject, then perhaps you might want to check out my course, Cape Cod History: Journey to the Outer Beach, for Nauset Community Education at the Nauset Middle School in Orleans, during January and February. Classes begin on Monday, Jan. 22, with four more 90-minute sessions on Jan. 29, Feb. 5, Feb. 12, and Feb. 26,

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Don Wilding

Sep 23, 2017
1 min

Remembering Noel Beyle

When one thinks of Noel Beyle, it’s hard for the mind not to wander into the confines of the Wellfleet Drive-In Theater, the place that hosts the flea market where the Eastham writer, historian and humorist hawked his historical postcards for so many years. “We just kind of long for those summer days,” he said in a segment for the WCVB-TV program, “Chronicle,” during a taping here in March of 2006. “The flea market’s going to open up soon — can’t be soon enough, I want to tal

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Don Wilding

Aug 18, 2017
2 min

Outermost House at Windmill Weekend

I'll be presenting a special talk and multi-media presentation, “The Outermost House: An Eastham Story”, during Eastham’s Windmill Weekend. The program will be held at the Eastham Historical Society’s 1869 Schoolhouse Museum, 25 Schoolhouse Road, on Saturday, Sept. 9, at 7 p.m. I've presented a variety of public talks about Beston’s literary classic and Cape Cod experiences since 2001, and will take a comprehensive localized look at Beston's ultimate Cape Cod experience. For

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Don Wilding

Mar 31, 2017
1 min

Pre-Order 'A Brief History of Eastham'

Don Wilding's book, "A Brief History of Eastham: On the Outer Beach of Cape Cod," will be available from the History Press on July 17. The chapter lineup is as follows: 1. From Nauset to Eastham 2. Agricultural Assets: Asparagus and Turnips 3. The Windmill: Eastham’s Landmark 4. The Era of “Thumpertown” 5. The Eastham’s Railroad’s Golden Age 6. Nauset Light: The “Big Star” in Eastham 7. Storm Warriors: The Coast Guard in Eastham 8. Tales of the Eastham Rum Runners 9. The “Old

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Don Wilding

Feb 3, 2017
1 min

The Blizzard of '78 at Nauset Light

Here in New England, there's an abundance of wild stories about the storm known as "The Blizzard of '78." As great as some of these tales are, there are few that can match the wild night experienced by former Cape Cod National Seashore ranger Jack Clarke. Back on Feb. 6, 1978, the day that the famous storm first struck New England, Clarke spent his night at the keeper's house at Nauset Light. Miriam Rowell, who owned the house from 1957 to 1982, wintered in London, and enlist

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Don Wilding

Jan 6, 2017
1 min

Journeys of the 'Three Sisters'

For anyone who wants to have a look at the coastal beacons of a bygone era, the towers known as "The Three Sisters" can be viewed at a small park on Cable Road in North Eastham, just a few hundred yards west of Nauset Light. It was on that seaside bluff where the "Sisters," which were so dubbed because of their appearance, stood between 1838 and 1911, when two of them were removed and later became bedrooms on a cabin down the road. As Fay Shook recalled in a 1991 oral history

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Don Wilding

Oct 26, 2016
1 min

Don signs on with The History Press

Don Wilding is happy to announce that he has signed on with The History Press to write "A Brief History of Eastham," which will be published early next summer. The book will feature chapters on early settlers and their encounters with the Nauset Tribe, landmarks such as the Windmill, the Coast Guard station, and Nauset Light, agricultural Eastham, rum runners, and the Cape Cod National Seashore, plus many more. Don is the author of "Henry Beston's Cape Cod: How 'The Outermost

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Don Wilding

Oct 14, 2016
1 min

Marching back in time

Back in September of 1936, the Eastham Elementary School took a big step into a new age. Now, 80 years later, Eastham Elementary Principal Bill Crosby is looking to recognize that moment in history with a special parade on Tuesday, Oct. 18, involving all 180 students in the school (pre-kindergarten through fifth grade), with a procession from the old schoolhouse at the corner of Nauset and Schoolhouse roads to the present-day facility. “I thought it would be fun to recreate w

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Don Wilding

Jul 26, 2016
1 min

Tools of the lifesaving trade

Long before the Cape Cod Canal made life so much easier for mariners, ships had to make their way around the outer bars of the peninsula. On many occasions, these ships ran aground, costing thousands of lives. That casualty total might have been even higher had it not been for the rescue efforts of the U.S. Lifesaving Service (1872-1915) and the U.S. Coast Guard at 13 stations along the outer beach. The tools of their trade were referred to as “beach apparatus.” Among the ite

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The icy and heroic rescue of the Castagna

Don Wilding

Jul 24, 2016
2 min

The icy and heroic rescue of the Castagna

Perhaps you’re wondering why that ship’s steering wheel pictured above is missing a spoke. Would you believe it was because the first mate’s hand was frozen to it and the spoke had to be sawed off to free him? That was the case during the early morning hours of Feb. 17, 1914, when the Italian bark Castagna ran aground off the coast of South Wellfleet, just south of the Marconi Wireless Station. The stormy and icy conditions claimed five lives. It could have been much worse. T

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Don Wilding

Jul 19, 2016
1 min

Learn all about Hopper in Eastham

Bob Seay, the Cape Cod based radio newsman for WGBH radio in Boston, will be bringing his program on artist Edward Hopper back to Chapel in the Pines, 220 Samoset Road in Eastham, this Sunday (July 24) and again on Sunday, Aug. 14. Both programs begin at 10 a.m. Seay last spoke about Hopper during a talk at the Chapel, which is one of several Eastham structures that the artist featured in his works, in April. Since then, he's gathered more research on the subject and will inc

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Don Wilding

Jul 15, 2016
1 min

Museum lecture all about wampum

As recently as 2008, Emily Rux had no idea of the significance of wampum, the traditional shell beads of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of the indigenous people of North America. It was during that year that she and her husband, who is on active duty in the Coast Guard, moved to USCG Air Station Cape Cod (formerly Otis Air Force Base). As they began exploring the Cape, wampum was something that began to cross the path of Rux, a New York native and anthropologist/historic archae

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Journey with Wilding into Outer Cape history this summer

Don Wilding

Jul 1, 2016
3 min

Journey with Wilding into Outer Cape history this summer

Don Wilding, a co-founder of the nonprofit Henry Beston Society and Scribe of Cape Cod Lore, will present 14 Cape Cod history lecture programs this summer on the Outer Cape. Wilding, author of the book, “Henry Beston’s Cape Cod: How ‘The Outermost House’ Inspired a National Seashore,” and contributing Cape Cod history columnist for Cape newspapers, brings the “Outermost House” program to the Eastham Historical Society’s 1869 Schoolhouse Museum (25 Schoolhouse Rd., Eastham, ac

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Historian to explore Cape's
legendary shipwrecks

Don Wilding

Jun 10, 2016
1 min

Historian to explore Cape's legendary shipwrecks

There may not be too many folks who know more about Cape Cod shipwrecks than Bill Burke. However, even the longtime Cape Cod National Seashore historian manages to learn something new when he’s perusing over the tales of his trade. “I was recently re-reading Henry David Thoreau’s ‘Cape Cod,’ and I’d forgotten about this, but it starts off with the Cohasset shipwreck and how it made an impression on him,” said Burke. “Even before he got to the Cape, he kind of got this taste o

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Don Wilding

May 2, 2016
1 min

In-Progress Screening in Chatham

The Henry Beston Society will present an in-progress screening of its upcoming feature length documentary about naturalist writer Henry Beston and his influence on the creation of the Cape Cod National Seashore at the Chatham Orpheum on Wednesday, May 4, at 9:30 a.m. As the film's producer, I will present the background and current status of the project, and director Christopher Seufert of Mooncusser Films will follow with an updated sample of cinematography, including aerial

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Don Wilding

Apr 1, 2016
1 min

Underneath Stellwagen Bank

When it comes to experiencing maritime history, many of us have to dig through newspaper archives, books, and other written forms of communication to get the story. Matthew Lawrence, on the other hand, gets to literally “walk the decks” of the sunken vessels. The public will have a chance to get a glimpse into his world when he visits the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History on April 14. Lawrence has been a maritime archaeologist with the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctua

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Where Land, Sea, and History Meet ...

Don Wilding's

CAPE COD