16. Scargo Tower
City: Cape Cod, MA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Description: Scargo Tower is a 28-foot-high brick observatory sitting atop the 160-foot-high Scargo Hill, so you can imagine the view on a clear day. Provincetown Monument across Cape Cod Bay can be seen, as can the white cliffs of Plymouth. In perfect atmospheric conditions you can just make out a suggestion of Nantucket to the south. Built in 1902 and called Tobey Tower to honor early settler Thomas Tobey, it was given to the town of Dennis in 1929 and renamed Scargo Tower in favor of the Nobscusset Indian Princess of the same name. Below the tower and hill rests Scargo Lake, which during the summer hosts swimmers, sailboats, and canoes. Scargo Tower is open to the public and is a great place to stargaze.
17. Cape Cod National Seashore Salt Pond Visitor Center
City: Cape Cod, MA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Description: The Salt Pond Visitor Center, part of the Cape Cod National Seashore, is generally open daily year-round from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It offers park-related films in a state-of-the-art theater equipped with a digital audio-visual system. An on-site store stocks maps, puzzles, games, books, and other local interest items, and the seasonal schedule includes highlights from hikes to campfire chats.
18. Chatham Fish Pier
City: Cape Cod, MA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Description: Just down the road from the Chatham Light is the Chatham Fish Pier, where there’s always a small crowd gathered on the visitor deck. Not only does the pier offer a great view of Chatham’s harbor and outer beach with the Atlantic beyond but, when the fishing boats unload their catch, both children and adults get a fascinating glimpse of the Cape’s best-known industry.
City: Cape Cod, MA
Category: Tours & Attractions
City: Cape Cod, MA
Category: Tours & Attractions
City: Cape Cod, MA
Category: Tours & Attractions
22. Eastham Schoolhouse Museum
City: Cape Cod, MA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (508) 255-0788
Description: This one-room schoolhouse was built in 1869 as an elementary school. Around the turn of the 20th century, the town had three such one-room schoolhouses. These were later joined to form the Eastham Central School, which operated until 1936. After two of the original schoolhouses deteriorated in the mid-1900s, the old original schoolhouse was restored to its late-19th-century one-room status and serves as a museum of the Eastham Historical Society. It still has two doors marked as separate entrances for boys and girls. Exhibits include farming and household implements, Native American artifacts, and displays pertaining to area history. The museum is open July and Aug from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Tues and Wed and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thurs and Fri. Admission is free, but donations are welcome.
23. Edward Penniman House
City: Cape Cod, MA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (508) 255-3421 (Salt Pond Visi
Description: Located within the boundaries of the Cape Cod National Seashore, the Penniman House in the Fort Hill area of Eastham showcases the fortunes made by the Cape’s whaling captains. Retiring from the sea in 1876, Captain Edward Penniman built this impressive Victorian mansion on a knoll with a cupola overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. In front of the house, a gateway made of two huge whale jawbones marks the entrance to the property. You can tour the house during the summer season. The Penniman House is open from May through Sept, Tues through Thurs from 1 to 4 p.m. Just call ahead to register if you plan on visiting. Guided tours are available twice weekly (Mon and Sat at 11 a.m.) by reservation only. Admission is free.
24. First Encounter Beach
City: Cape Cod, MA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (508) 255-0788
Description: At First Encounter Beach along the Cape Cod Bay side of Eastham’s shore is a granite boulder with a plaque marking this location as the site of the Pilgrims’ first encounter with Native Americans. Unfortunately, this first encounter was not a friendly one. The Pilgrims, on their third day of exploring this new land, awoke to a volley of arrows that they answered with a volley of musket fire. Both parties departed, uninjured. Future relations between the two peoples would be much more cordial.
City: Cape Cod, MA
Category: Tours & Attractions
26. Jenny Lind Tower
City: Cape Cod, MA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Description: In the mid-1800s, Jenny Lind was a legendary opera singer dubbed the “Swedish Nightingale” because of her sweet soprano voice. Legend has it that a Lind concert in Boston was so oversold that crowds rioted, forcing Lind to sing (for free) high atop a 55-foot stone tower at the Fitchburg Railroad Depot. In 1927, when it was announced that the tower was going to be destroyed, a wealthy Boston attorney shipped it, piece by piece, to a parcel of land he owned in North Truro. Today the tower and the land are part of the Cape Cod National Seashore. Though the tower is not officially open to the public, you can see it from the parking lot of the Highland Light as well as from the Highland Golf Links.
27. Jonathan Young Windmill
City: Cape Cod, MA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Description: This windmill was built in 1720 in South Orleans and moved in the mid-1800s to Orleans Center. It was then bought by a private interest in 1897 and relocated again, this time to Hyannisport. In 1983, the windmill was donated to the Orleans Historical Society and moved back to Orleans and its current place at Town Cove Park, where it was restored. The windmill is open to the public daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. from June to Sept. No admission fee is charged.
City: Cape Cod, MA
Category: Tours & Attractions
City: Cape Cod, MA
Category: Tours & Attractions
30. Old Godfrey Windmill
City: Cape Cod, MA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Description: This wind-powered grist mill was built along Stage Harbor Road in 1797 by Colonel Benjamin Godfrey. The mill ground corn until 1898. Over the course of the 20th century, it was twice damaged by storms and was closed until 1956, when it was given to the town. The mill was then moved to its current location at Chase Park. It is open every day except Tues throughout July and Aug. This is one of those look-see attractions with no admission fee charged.