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It’s A Salty Old Cape Town
Truro is one of the saltiest of Cape Cod’s salty towns. Many a tale is told by those who know Truro well through long living there, of awful storms, shipwrecks, and rescues at Truro; and of voyages of Truro’s men and ships to distant seas in search of whales, and to carry cargoes of other kinds.
It was in 1709 that Truro became a town. Her people named it, with affectionate remembrance, after Truro in Cornwall, England. Cornwall itself was prolific in lore and legends of the sea, and of ships deliberately lured by treacherous lights in the waving hands of Cornwall men, to their fate on Cornwall’s steep seaside cliffs and crags. Doubtless, the settlers of our Truro knew well Cornwall’s history in these tragedies.
In the territory that now forms Truro there used to live a tribe of Indians, called Pamets, belonging to the Nauset nation of Indians. When the Mayflower first dropped her hook into the waters of her anchorage off Provincetown, her men and women looking shoreward could see Truro’s wooded hills. It was to Truro that Myles Standish and a party of his men went on their initial exploration of the new land to which they had come.
Truro’s first settlers engaged in fishing at sea, and in farming ashore. For some time, whaling also was one of Truro’s chief industries. Another of the community’s prime occupations was the making of salt, for in those days salt was greatly needed and all Cape Cod towns were employed in deriving it from sea water.
The town of Truro is eleven miles long, and very narrow. All its east coast faces directly the broad Atlantic. Its west coast looks over the vast expanse of Massachusetts Bay. Truro’s northern boundary touches historic Provincetown, and its southern boundary touches Wellfleet—a trio of towns fairly permeated by salt air, sea lore, and summertime beauty.
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