Long Point (Cape Cod)
| Long Point | |
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| Village | |
Long Point Light and remains of a Civil War artillery battery. Also shown is the Darby cross erected by the Beachcombers club.
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 Long Point
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| Coordinates: 42°01′37″N 70°10′19″W / 42.027°N 70.172°WCoordinates: 42°01′37″N 70°10′19″W / 42.027°N 70.172°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Massachusetts |
| County | Barnstable |
| Town | Provincetown |
| Village settled | 1818 |
| Lighthouse built | 1827 |
| Village disbanded | circa 1857–1863 |
| Battery built | 1863 |
| Battery abandoned | 1872 |
| Area (roughly 150 acres) | |
| • Total | 0.2 sq mi (0.6 km2) |
| Highest elevation | 24 ft (7 m) |
| Lowest elevation | 0 ft (0 m) |
| Population (1850) | |
| • Total | 260 |
| • Density | 1,100/sq mi (430/km2) |
| • Current pop. | 0 |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | E. Daylight (EDT) (UTC-4) |
| GNIS feature ID | 616615 |
Long Point is a peninsula located in Provincetown, Massachusetts, at the extreme tip of Cape Cod, as it curls back in on itself to create Provincetown Harbor. The Long Point Light was built on this point in 1827. The lighthouse once shared this peninsula with a settlement of fishermen that came to be known as Long Point, Massachusetts. This Provincetown village grew and thrived from 1818 until the late 1850s. When the settlers decided to leave Long Point, they took most of their houses with them – about 30 homes in all – by floating them across the harbor.
During the American Civil War, the military established a defensive coastal artillery post and garrison at this location. The Long Point Battery came to be known as "Fort Useless" and "Fort Ridiculous" among the local residents.
Today, Long Point is a ghost village – nothing remains, except for the lighthouse and an earthen mound, the last remnant from the earlier military post.
A fisherman named John Atwood built the first house on Long Point in 1818. He was followed by Prince Freeman, and next by Eldridge Smith. Others soon followed in increasing numbers, and in 1822, Prince Freeman, Jr. became the first child born on "The Point", as it was called by the locals.
The initial lure that attracted so many fishermen to this area was its proximity to prime fishing grounds, and the amount of fish that could be caught from the shore. Using sweep seines (that were hand-knit by their wives), fishermen caught an abundance of mackerel, shad and bass from shore. There are reports of up to seventy-five 200-pound (91 kg) barrels of white shad caught in one haul, fetching $16 per barrel – accounting for inflation, that single haul netted roughly $32,000 in today's dollars.
By an act of Congress on May 18, 1826, the government earmarked $2,500 (roughly $53,000 today) to acquire four acres at the extreme tip of the point, and to construct a lighthouse, which was completed in 1827. By 1830, the lighthouse became the site of Long Point's first school, starting with only three children. The Long Point community continued to grow, and by 1846, the Town of Provincetown voted to build a schoolhouse on Long Point. By then, the village was home to 38 fishing families, with nearly 200 adults and 60 children. In describing the experience of living on Long Point in the early 1800s, one author wrote:
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