 |
| about dmoz | help |
|
|
| about dmoz | help |
Top: Regional: North_America: United_States: Massachusetts: Localities: G: Gosnold
| Submissions must be for general information on the Elizabeth Islands of Massachusetts. Please submit any commercial sites to the town of Gosnold. |
Gosnold consists of a chain of a dozen islands running westward from Woods Hole between Buzzard's Bay and Vineyard Sound. Its history is long and colorful.In 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold made landfall at Cuttyhunk, and gave the Elizabeth Islands group its name. Captain Kidd anchored in one of Gosnold's harbors in 1699 just before he was captured for piracy. Major General Wait Steel Winthrop and James Bowdoin of Boston developed their property there as a country estate, stocking it with deer and turkeys. In 1759, one of the earliest lighthouses was built on Naushon at Tarpaulin Cove and six years later, a light was built on Cuttyhunk to warn of the disastrous reefs near the islands.
Residents of the islands fought for almost two centuries to become independent of the Town of Chilmark to which they were attached. In 1863, the 16 legal voters of Gosnold claimed they were not being fairly represented and finally succeeded in getting permission to establish an autonomous town.
The islands in the chain include Cuttyhunk, Penikese, Nashawena, Pasque, Naushon and Nonamessett, all of which are privately-owned, except for Cuttyhunk.
Today, Gosnold provides summer homes to some and year-round homes to a handful, as one of the smallest communities in the Commonwealth.
| Submissions must be for general information on the Elizabeth Islands of Massachusetts. Please submit any commercial sites to the town of Gosnold. |
The Eliabeth Islands are a chain of a dozen islands running westward from the mainland of Cape Cod at Woods Hole, between Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound.The entire chain of islands comprise the town of Gosnold, in Dukes County.
The islands, varying in size from a few acres to several thousand, now bear the following names, beginning at Woods Hole and going westward in sequence: Nonamesset, Uncatena, Monohansett, Naushon, Weepecket, Pasque, Nashawena, Penekese, Gull and Cuttyhunk.
The islands have been, since the first purchase by Thomas Mayhew in1641, a part of the political life of Martha's Vineyard and Duke's County, at first forming one of the outlying portions of the Manor of Tisbury, later of Chilmark and for the past quarter of a century as an independent township.
| Copyright © 1998-2007 Netscape |