Exploring Sandy Neck

Sandy Neck, Barnstable, Cape Cod

Sandy Neck is a special place where about 85% of it is still wilderness. It’s so close to civilization, it’s hard to believe.
Welcome aboard the “Horseshoe Crab” and welcome to Barnstable harbor and Sandy Neck.

If we talk about Cape Cod and the islands, most people are aware that the Cape and the Islands were formed by a glacier. It’s important to realize that Sandy Neck, itself, was not formed by a glacier. What happened is that northeast wind blew against the cliffs, glacial sand up in Plymouth , and moved the sand slowly down the coast into this area. And that’s what basically formed Sandy Neck.
As we get closer and closer to what is considered the Great Marsh, is called the Great Marsh, even though most people, the Colonists, the settlers, when the Pilgrims arrived in 1620, unfortunately for about 100 years, they could think of nothing else but filling in the marshes. Now, in the last 20-25 years, we realize that 70% of the seafood we eat, we go to the fish market for, actually spends most of it’s life or all of its life in the marsh, itself. They begin to appreciate how important the marsh really is.

What is in front of the cottage is an osprey nest pole. The osprey have their 2 young on it. They come back every year. They’re migratory. And with those 2 young, they’re very protective. The male is usually in charge of security and the female in charge of the nest.

This is called Cottage Colony. Some people call it the Village at Sandy Neck Point. All of these cottages you see are privately owned. They were gunning shacks or fishing shacks. Some were floated over by barge. As you can see as we approach lighthouse, you can see metal straps holding the bricks all around it. They were put on in 1880. The keeper’s house was built in 1880 but the first lighthouse was built in 1826.

This is the end of Sandy Neck and you can see all the boaters, all the people on the beaches. This is underwater at high tide. Obviously, it gets deeper, it looks like there standing on the bottom here but it drops off pretty quickly. Are they walking or are they floating? Aah, they’re floating. Okay, that would make more sense to me.
It’s just hard to imagine what it was like in the 1800’s around here with all the boating activity. I mean we’re talking Clipper Ships and Schooners back and forth making this one of the busiest harbors around.