Truro is the next to last town on the eastern end of Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
Most of it is considered part of the Cape Cod National Seashore as designated by President John Kennedy in 1961. His family compound is about 40 miles to the west near the beginning of the Cape in Hyannis Port.
The residents of Truro have done their best over the years to head off development. And they have mostly succeeded, but in some stretches along the shore every square inch is used to accommodate tourists who flood town in summer. This too gives the Cape its character.
Route 6 is like the narrow part of a funnel slowly moving cars toward the far end of the Cape and Provincetown. The north side is taken over by cottages and motels. The south is mostly protected by National Seashore status. To the south, the beaches appear much the way they would have when the first English settlers arrived in the late 1600's.
Above: Scenes from the south shore.
Fishing vessels troll off the coast. Lighthouses can be seen at the farthest and highest points. Snow fencing protects native grasses and bird colonies. Waves crash on shore after building energy over hundreds of miles. Sharks linger just off the beach. Sailboats sit high and dry on the sand as the tide pulls out and re-float as high tide fills in the coastline.
Then there is the light as painted by Edward Hopper who built a summer house in Truro in the 1930's. Many of his most famous paintings are a study in the light of the Cape as it falls on the exterior of sea washed cottages and into interiors through the wavy glass of twelve light windows.
The Cape Cod National Seashore is a treasure of the east coast. The crowds of summer cannot detract from its raw appeal. The cold of winter makes it more humbling in gray desolation.
Above: Cottages on the north shore near the Provincetown line.
© Dean Pagani - 2020
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© Dean Pagani 2020