geography-of-massachusetts

"... in 1762, seventy-eight s cleared from American ports, of which more than half were from Nantucket. The year of 1766 saw 118 vessels, measuring 75 tons each on the average, clear from Nantucket alone. They brought home 11,969 barrels of valued at $129,983. In 1770 the Nantucket fleet numbered 125 ships of the average size of 93 tons. During that year they took 14,331 barrels of oil worth $358,200. The ship owners of other ports, seeing Nantucket's prosperity, had tried to share in it. Their success was fairly good, but Nantucket owned at this time as many whale-ships as all the other ports of America combined."

"When the expanse of more recently formed land on which Nantucket stood was submerged, Nantucket was insulated by the advance of the sea around it, and the other islands in the same chain—, , , and s—were similarly left standing in the ocean. Nantucket was, therefore, a —a halting-place of the glacial movement,—that is,it was formed by the advancing lower rim of the glacier which, melting, deposited its accumulation of —sand, clay, and s—caught up in its southward march, and frozen within its substance, in great heaps where they exist to-day as islands in the ocean."

"Nantucket is one of the last remaining authentic places in America. It has streets and Quaker meetinghouses and no traffic lights and no s. It also has fifty miles of pristine public beach. It's one of those places that people fall in love with because there is no place else like it."

"Since the island was settled, Nantucketers have been grappling with coastal hazards which, in many ways, are an accepted part of island life. Formed after the retreat of the , most of the island is composed of glacial outwash materials, including sand and , which are especially prone to erosion ... Over time, Nantucketers have adapted to coastal hazards by moving lighthouses, homes, roads, utilities, and other structures away from the coastline in both managed (i.e., planned) and emergency situations. However, with climate change, coastal storms are increasing in frequency and intensity and erosion of the island’s bluffs, dunes, and beaches is becoming more rapid with sea level rise, bringing impacts to Nantucketers’ front doors and threatening their homes, infrastructure, and natural resources."

"Social and political upheavals of the 1960s spurred many reactions in the arts, from optimistic modernism to nostalgic historicism, that resulted in a widespread revival of . On Nantucket, the 1960s craft revival coincided with a renaissance of the island itself, as it looked towards the past to shape its future. The wharf transformed and was promoted, the island a time capsule of its nineteenth-century glory days as a port. In 1961, the Nantucket Historical Trust renovated the Jared Coffin House, a historic whaling merchant’s mansion turned hotel, decorating it with custom reproduction interior textiles. A weaving workshop was established, and the Nantucket Looms was born. While historicism is Nantucket’s trademark, a study of the Nantucket Looms in the 1960s reveals that modernism is equally apparent in Nantucket’s craft history."

"... I felt just so incredibly safe this trip, and everybody that lives here is so kind. And I just learned that, according to a census, that this is the highest per capita of anywhere in the whole United States ..."

"Before the ocean rose to near its current level some six to eight thousand years ago, the Cape and Islands were just relatively nondescript ridges in an immense plain that stretched all the way to . The first pioneer plants were probably various cold-weather berries, along with , , and . and wandered in, followed by the sturdy humans who made a living hunting them. Many of the smaller species of wildlife that now inhabit the various islands arrived by land as well, only to be isolated when the water rose, and ate away at both and . Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard each has its own particular subspecies of short-tailed shrew, both of which differ from the short-tailed shrew of the mainland."

"Cape Cod is the bared and bended arm of Massachusetts: the shoulder is at ; the elbow, or crazy-bone, at ; the wrist at ; and the sandy fist at ,—behind which the State stands on her guard, with her back to the , and her feet planted on the floor of the ocean, like an athlete protecting her Bay,—boxing with north-east storms, and, ever and anon, heaving up her Atlantic adversary from the lap of earth,—ready to thrust forward her other fist, which keeps guard the while upon her breast at ."

"While the old Cape houses we see today seem just as firmly planted as ever, many are far removed from their original sites. Because they sat low to the ground, it was fairly easy to move them about with the aid of horses and rollers or to float them from place to place on barges. Houses were moved all over the Cape, and some were even floated across the from to the south shore of Cape Cod. It is said that they could be transported with contents intact and that, when stoves came into use, the fires were left burning so cooking could be done en route."

"Enterprise, Capital and Mechanical Skill; Enterprise to conceive the plan, Capital to furnish the means, and Engineering Skill to accomplish the work. It is these, and not the fabled powers of necromancy, that have planted themselves below the falls at Hadley; have taught the mighty river to flow backwards from before their gigantic masonry; and thus laid the foundations of a city which will yet with its suburbs spread for miles along the bank, and be felt in the enhanced value of every farm in the county."

"You have harnessed this great river and increased the product of the manufacturers and have bettered your conditions in a quiet and effective way. Evidences are shown of the elevating influences of educational institutions, the public schools, the colleges which gather in this neighborhood—Mount Holyoke, Smith, Amherst, and the Springfield colleges—all these evidence the high tone which you cultivate and encourage."

"Technology marches on and the wonders of yesterday become the curiosities of today. But in every great age some men succeed in rising above the transient and in creating works which outlast the times which produce them. The founders of Holyoke were such men. They built with such honesty and intelligence that the city has never been forced to abandon its original foundations. It remains a living monument to those pioneer engineers and industrialists of the mid-nineteenth century who had neither coal nor steel. When, after the Civil War, these two commodities became available, creative imaginations of the type which visioned Holyoke transformed America within a third of a century into the leading industrial nation of the world."

"Holyoke, now over a century old, has never flowered. For a brief period, perhaps from about 1878 to 1893, she gave signs of sturdy growth. Then a slow paralysis set in, and the promise was not fulfilled. Today she has far more to recommend her than a dozen other New England manufacturing cities...Nevertheless, if Holyoke is not one of New England's dreary mill towns, she is still far from realizing the hopes her founders and later comers alike had for her."

"I have some confidence in the great principle of local self-government. I believe that this great city of Holyoke, energetic, full of inspiration, the Chicago of Massachusetts, is able to run its own business without the admonition or control of the government in Boston."

"When lived, she often entertained in [Wistariahurst]'s music room, engaging famous artists to sing or play. When she entered the room, her guests would turn to look at her, forgetting the instruments, for she was a striking, charming personality. Like the chaplain of a chateau in a foreign town. And she was also a trained musician, in her girlhood elected class musician at Vassar College, playing the piano, violin, and harpsichord. When she died suddenly in Paris, on an Easter Sunday, of galloping influenza, a light went out of Holyoke."

"Just as our nation's flag represents the ideals and goals of a free people, so does Holyoke High School represent the ideals and goals of the American system of education."

"It is very unlikely that the people of Holyoke generally have any realization of the large value of the natural resources and opportunities virtually at their control, to utilize or to preserve for future utilization, or to waste and destroy by neglect. They have probably been in the situation of the American people as a whole, not unlike that of some spoiled children of wealthy parents; bewildered by more opportunities and resources than they have yet learned to utilize effectively, they are apt in the eagerness with which they pursue certain ends either to waste and neglect or recklessly to sell for a pittance other values that they have not yet had time to appreciate, but which they will sorely regret as time brings greater experience and greater managing ability."

"This infant giant of Western Massachusetts, destined to eclipse Lowell and other manufacturing places in this country, is situated upon the right bank of the Connecticut River, about eight miles from Springfield, and about the same distance south from Northampton, in the midst of a beautiful and fertile region, noted far and wide for the industry of its inhabitants, its salubrious clime, and its enchanting scenery."

"Holyoke was a success. It had achieved what thousands of towns had yearned for: it had become a major industrial center; it had grown rapidly, it was 'on the map.' It was also true that the sewers of the town emptied into the canal that flowed through it; that the community was unable to provide for its paupers; that its disease and death rate had tripled. But only the enemies of progress grumbled—cantankerous farmers and chronic malcontents... The town which failed in the race for industry dwindled into gentle impotence; to succeed as Holyoke did meant to explode into some terrible and tormented form whose sickness was acclaimed true health; to neither succeed nor to fail meant to live from one hope to the next, finding in each just enough nourishment to keep dreams alive."