You know it’s the holiday season on the Outer Cape when the David M. Gray Christmas Wreath adorns Nauset Light in North Eastham. The annual hanging of the wreath occurs at the lighthouse this Saturday, Dec. 1, at 10 a.m. Gray was a longtime member of the Nauset Light Preservation Society’s board of directors and also served as its president before he retired from that position in 2013. Gray passed away on Sept. 6 at the age of 84. According to NLPS, Gray “initiated a number o

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

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,

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

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

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

The Eastham Historical Society hosted Keith Sisterson of the Nauset Light Preservation Society on Wednesday night at the 1869 Schoolhouse Museum in Eastham. In a nearly hour-long presentation, Sisterson told of the history and importance of lighthouses on the Cape, and also showed a brief video about how Nauset Light was moved away from the eroding cliffs in 1996. The program was the first of many that the EHS will be presenting this summer. #NausetLight #NausetLightPreservat

It started out in Chatham before settling in Eastham in 1923. Erosion forced it to be moved back from the cliff in 1996. And, of course, it’s plastered on each and every bag of Cape Cod Potato Chips. That’s just a few notes in the story of Nauset Light, one of the most iconic lighthouses on Cape Cod. On Wednesday night, Keith Sisterson, President of the Nauset Light Preservation Society, will present a talk on the iconic beacon at the Eastham Historical Society’s 1869 Schoolh