The 'other cape'
Massachusetts' Cape Ann combines rural wildlife, historic harbors

By WILLIAM M. DOWD, Special to the Times Union 

See more by William Dowd at Dowd's Guides   found at dowdsguides.com

First published: Sunday, May 20, 2007

It could have been called Cape Tragabigzanda. In fact, it once
was.
Much of it remains rural, with salt marshes and small rivers.
Gulls swoop about, and herons soar up from the grasses, at once startling a
visitor and providing a perfect photo opportunity.

It is a place dotted by stands of sturdy oak, reminders of the
forests that helped attract European settlers eager to establish communities
and construct sailing ships, which would ply the cold waters of the Atlantic
on the three sides of this jut of land.

Its largest community is home to barely 32,000 souls, and many
of the neighboring towns and villages seem to be suspended in time,
periodically awakening like Brigadoon, albeit once a year rather than once
every hundred.

Welcome to Cape Ann -- Massachusetts' "other cape."

That's not a description locals tend to appreciate. While Cape
Cod has far wider fame, Cape Ann has plenty to distinguish it, they will
point out. Each of its main communities has its own pedigree.

Gloucester, its main city, is the nation's oldest fishing port,
founded in 1623. Tiny Rockport, a city of less than 8,000, once was the
granite mining center of the eastern seaboard, supplying building materials
to cities and towns booming from the Industrial Revolution. Even tinier
Manchester-by-the-Sea, 5,200 population, was settled in 1629 and became
Boston high society's summer coast of choice after the distinguished poet
Richard Dana built a seasonal home there in 1845. And Essex, tinier still at
3,200, was a renowned shipbuilding center that supplied the maritime
industry with fleet wooden schooners.

Name game

Cape Ann was named for Queen Anne of England after earlier
attempts at naming it. The French explorer Samuel de Champlain briefly came
ashore here in 1605, then, in 1606, made a return visit and a peaceful
encounter with the 200 or so Agawam Indians who inhabited the area. He
referred to it as Le Beau Port. The English explorer John Smith later
fancifully renamed it Cape Tragabigzanda after a Turkish princess. King
Charles settled the matter when he named it after his mother, although it
soon became spelled without the "e."

But that was then. Now, Cape Ann's major claim to fame is
tourism, not only for Bostononians a half-hour drive to the southwest, but
for hundreds of thousands of others.

It also has periodically attracted moviemakers, from 1937 when
much of the Spencer Tracy film "Captains Courageous" was shot here to 1997
when the George Clooney film "The Perfect Storm" was set, and shot, here.

From the Capital Region, the best route to Cape Ann is the
Massachusetts Turnpike to I-95N which becomes I-95N/Route 128, and then
Route 128 by itself. That also provides a perfect introduction to the area.
Road signs direct visitors to several exits for Gloucester. Taking the one
not mentioned, Exit 13, is a smart move.

It leads you to the town landing of the city of Gloucester, an
oddly named place -- is it a city, or is it a town? -- that is an excellent
spot for photographing or just gazing at the Jones River Salt Marsh.

By the sea

The flat, rutted expanse is covered with marsh grasses and
dotted with outcroppings of sharp boulders. It is a starkly beautiful part
of the 17,000-acre Great Marsh that extends from Cape Ann into New
Hampshire.

In this community of the sea, houses are built with window and
deck views oriented toward the water, be it the Jones River, the Annisquam
River, a broad marsh or Gloucester's deep water harbor. All along the cape,
broad, pristine beaches with fascinating names -- Wingaersheek Beach,
Singing Beach, Chebacco Lake Beach -- are made for year-round strolling,
even in the blustery nonsummer months when many of the shops and dining
spots are closed.

Wingaersheek Beach, just up the road from the town landing, is a
fine example of a beach for young and old alike. Although most of the dunes
on Cape Ann are off limits to foot traffic because of a restoration project,
large areas are good for sunbathing or strolling. Groupings of huge boulders
and rocks smoothed over milleniums by the effects of the sea provide small,
sheltered nooks for beach chair loungers or imaginary fortresses to be
climbed by nimble youths.

Back on Route 128, one more exit, to 14, takes you through Grant
Circle, one of New England's iconic traffic rotaries, and into the city.

Creative construction

Gloucester, named for an English port city, is built on a slope
that runs down to the waterfront and its famous harbor. That has made for
some creative construction over its 384 years, with winding streets and lots
of small, clustered shops in the center of the city, yet a great openness by
the water.

The oldest buildings tend to be of brick and granite, some of
them survivors of two devastating fires -- one in 1830 wiped out more than
70 structures, the other in 1864 destroyed 103 buildings.

On Stacy Boulevard, parallel to the shop-studded Main Street,
visitors walk along the seawall or lounge on benches. The view toward the
harbor is of busy ships making their ways back and forth, or of historic Ten
Pound Island Lighthouse, which sits at the end of a spit of land guarding
the harbor entrance. Winslow Homer (1836-1910) lived in rented quarters in
the now-gone lightkeeper's house in the summer of 1880 and painted about 50
scenes of Gloucester Harbor.

In the middle of the pedestrian pathway is the famous "Man at
the Wheel" statue, the sailor steering his ship who is the dominant part of
the Fishermen's Memorial Cenotaph installation dedicated, as the inscription
from Psalm 107 on the statue says, to "they that go down to the sea in
ships." Names of many mariners who died at sea are inscribed on stone
installations there. A few yards away is another monument, to the wives and
children of mariners.

Those more into commercialism shouldn't miss another iconic
figure on Rogers Street -- the Gorton's of Gloucester fisherman, clad in
yellow slicker and rain hat. He's been the trademark of the 158-year-old
seafood company for years.

On the coast

Driving back to the Grant Circle rotary, take a right turn and
pick up Route 127 into Rockport, a few minutes' drive away. It's a charming
little spot with its own cape, a neighborhood called Bearskin Neck, that is
jammed with arts and crafts dealers and artists, as well as numerous
eateries including The Fish Shack, one of the better tourist-town
restaurants I've tried and with a nice view of the harbor.

It's not all shops and galleries, however. The Rockport Chamber
Music Festival's season, for example, runs from June 7 to July 1, featuring
visiting professional musicians. And, in typical maritime Massachusetts
tradition, whale watch boat tours are a regular offering.

Reversing course and getting back on Route 128, you'll head for
Route 133 and Essex, not much more than a bend in the road but filled with
antique shops and a smattering of art galleries.

For those who believe such things, the year-round restaurant
called Woodman's at Essex, founded in 1914, claims to have invented the
fried clam in 1916. The dish gets high praise from all around, thanks
primarily to the local clams taken from along the Essex River that runs
northward into Ipswich Bay.

Then it's over to adjoining Manchester-by-the-Sea. It was just
Manchester until 1990. But Manchester is such a common name in New England
that railroad conductors had taken to calling it by the longer name to
distinguish it from the others, and town residents voted to make the name
official.

It is the quietest of Cape Ann's four main communities, but has
its share of shops and dining spots. It also has the Trask House Museum,
which provides a glimpse into 19th-century New England artifacts, decorative
arts and furniture. And the town is the home of Singing Beach, so-called
because the sand makes a squeaking sound when walked on.

Throughout the cape, you'll find any number of opportunities to
get out on -- or even under -- the water, ranging from whale watching, deep
sea fishing charters and pleasure cruises, boat rides on the Essex River and
sailing on antique-design schooners to river kayaking and scuba or snorkel
diving.

For those interested in whales, the Whale Center of New England
in Gloucester displays the skeleton of a humpback whale and offers
information from marine mammal experts on the population, behavior and
biology of marine mammals in local waters.

Although various events are staged in Gloucester year-round, the
major one is the St. Peter's Fiesta, this year set for June 27-July 1. As is
the case in numerous other seaports, the event was started by
Italian-American fishermen. This one began in 1927 when fishing captain
Savatore Favazza, a Sicilian immigrant, had a life-size statue of St. Peter
erected in the Italian district. Very quickly, a religious festival was
organized around it, and in the next few years the event grew in scope and
variety to include events on land and water.

Since it is far more compact than that "other cape," you can do
Cape Ann justice in a shorter visit. Then again, as I mused over a hearty
and inexpensive breakfast at The Gull restaurant in a Gloucester marina the
morning I was to depart, what's the rush?

William M. Dowd, a local freelance writer, covers food, drink
and destinations online at TasteForTravel.org.

If you go:

HELPFUL CONTACTS


a.. Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce (978) 283-1601;
http://www.capeannvacations.com

a.. Rockport Chamber of Commerce (978) 546-6575;
http://rockportusa.com

a.. Addison Gilbert Hospital, 298 Washington St., Gloucester,
Mass. (978) 283-4000
POINTS OF INTEREST


a.. Essex Shipbuilding Museum, 66 Main St., Essex, Mass.

a.. Cape Ann Historical Museum, 27 Pleasant St., Gloucester,
Mass.

a.. Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center, 23 Harbor Loop,
Gloucester, Mass.

a.. Sargent House Museum, 49 Middle St., Gloucester, Mass.

a.. Cape Ann Golf Course, Route 133, Essex, Mass.
KEY DATES


a.. June 16, 2007, International Dory Races

a.. June 16-17, Artisans Studio Tour

a.. June 27, Gloucester New Fish Festival

a.. June 27-July 1, St. Peter's Fiesta

a.. July 3-4, holiday parades

a.. Aug. 18-19, Gloucester Waterfront Festival

a.. Aug. 24-26, Gloucester New Arts Festival

a.. Sept. 1-2, Gloucester Schooner Festival

a.. Oct. 13-14, Rockport Harvest Festival

a.. Oct. 20, Essex Clam Fest

a.. Nov. 23-Dec. 31, Christmas On Cape Ann




Privacy Rights | Terms of Service
All Times Union materials copyright 1996-2010, Capital Newspapers Division
of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, NY