On February 1788 Massachusetts became the 6th State in the Constitution.  

The name Massachusetts comes from Algonquian Indian words that mean the great mountain, an apparent reference to the tallest of the Blue Hills, a recreation area south of the town of Milton.  

Massachusetts is nicknamed the "Bay State", for the early settlement on Cape Cod Bay. Like other New Englanders, Bay Staters are popularly referred to as Yankees. (Not if they are Red Sox fans!)  

Much of the American heritage is embodied in Massachusetts. The windswept seacoast of this small northeastern state may have been the first part of what is now the United States seen by Europeans.  

Norse explorers probably landed on Cape Cod more than 1,000 years ago. The Mayflower colonists who reached Plimoth (Plymouth) in December 1620 (in the words of Governor William Bradford) found it “fit for shipping; and marched into ye land, and found diverse cornfields, & little running brooks, a place fit for situation". These Pilgrim leaders were refugees from religious persecution that had already driven them to another alien land. The English-speaking colony they founded became the New World's hub of liberty and culture, its cradle of commerce and industry. 

Many visitors are drawn to the historic and cultural richness of Massachusetts. Through-out the state, and especially in Boston and the other coastal cities and towns, the past is preserved for the future in historic buildings, monuments, museums, and libraries.
 

Fun Facts: 

Capital: Boston 

State Bird: Chickadee
State Dog: Boston Terrier
State Cat: Tabby
State Fish: Cod
State Insect: Ladybug
State Mammal: Right Whale
State Cookie: Toll House
State Flower: Mayflower 

Massachusetts Sport Teams 

College  

• Boston College Eagles - Boston
• Boston University Terriers - Boston
• Harvard Crimson - Cambridge
• Massachusetts Minutemen - Amherst
• Northeastern Huskies - Boston  

Professional  

• Boston Bruins (NHL) - Boston
• Boston Celtics (NBA) - Boston
• Boston Red Sox (MLB) - Boston
• New England Patriots (NFL) - Foxboro
• New England Revolution (MLS) - Foxboro
 

Falmouth is a classic New England town, complete with church steeples encircling the town green and a walkable and bustling Main Street. It offers a variety of activities and summer events, from the beautiful beaches and bike paths, to weekly outdoor band concerts and a summer theater. Founded in 1660 by Quaker sympathizers from Sandwich (where Congregationalists considered theirs the one true path), Falmouth proved remarkably arable territory: By the 19th century, it reigned as the strawberry capital of the world. Today, with over 32,000 year around residents, it's the second largest town on the Cape, after Barnstable. 

After more than a century of catering to summertime guests (it was the first "fashionable" Cape resort, served by trains from Boston starting in the 1870s), Falmouth residents have hospitality down to an art - a business, too, but people are so genuinely welcoming, you'll tend to forget that. The area around the historic Village Green (given over to military exercises in the pre-Revolutionary days) is a veritable hotbed of Bed and Breakfasts, with each vying to provide the most elaborate breakfasts and solicitous advice.  

West Falmouth (which is really more north of town, stretched alongside Buzzards Bay> has held on to its bucolic character and makes a lovely drive, with perhaps an occasional stop for the more alluring antique stores. Falmouth Heights, a cluster of shingled Victorian summerhouses on a bluff east of Falmouth's harbor, is as popular as it is picturesque; its narrow ribbon of beach is a magnet for all, especially families.  

With 55 miles of shoreline and 12 miles of public beaches, Falmouth is generally considered the nautical and tourist center of the upper Cape. The second largest town on the Cape, Falmouth boasts 14 harbors and more than 30 ponds.

If there is one dominant acre that has characterized Falmouth over the years, it is the Village Green that was set aside by the town fathers in 1749. This trianangler green, at the west end of Main Street, is the town's most attractive feature today. So much of Falmouth's history is taken place on or around the Village Green that the area has been designated a historic district to insure that this setting will be preserved intact. 

Mashpee is a Cape Cod Gem. Blessed by the nature with a gentle rolling terrain, rich forests, warm ocean beaches, beautiful bays and inlets, protected harbors and sparkling fresh water lakes and ponds, Mashpee offers a setting for a comfortable lifestyle that is truly marvelous.

Braced by the cool salt air from the south and refreshed by the scent of woods and water to the north, Mashpee rends the sense awash with a sense of peacefulness and well-being.

Mashpee's small town atmosphere is no accident. It has been carefully planned and nurtured. The town's rich Indian heritage is evident everywhere, as is its centuries-old occupational source, the harvesting of cranberries from the towns many bogs. Somehow these daily historic reminders add to the sense of community here, where houses become homes, and neighbors become friends.

At once diverse and connect, Mashpee can perhaps be best described by its names and places~~ Aptucxet, Wampanoag, Popponesset, New Seabury, South Cape Beach, Lowell Holly, Otis, Wakeby, Santuit, Mashpee Commons, Willowbend, Meetinghouse, and more.

Mashpee with but 438 residents in 1950, has grown to become one of Massachusetts most desirable and sought after residential communities. And it's no wonder. The geographical blessings of the town have been generously improved by man, with good schools and government, and a variety of home styles, settings and neighborhoods, home-sites, and neighborhoods that is unmatched. 

You only need to spend a short time here ~ to realize that we actually border on understatement when we refer to this town as ~ Marvelous Mashpee. 

Recreation in Mashpee

Recreation is abundant in Mashpee. The ocean beaches, bays and harbors, lakes and ponds provide obvious recreational pleasures. There are also opportunities for golf and tennis and hiking, walking, jogging, bike-riding and much more.

Shopping is a special pleasure for Mashpee folks. There's Mashpee Commons, Deer Crossing, Popponesset Market Place, and more, right in town. Hyannis is next door, so is Falmouth. Factory Outlets are nearby, more malls and mega-stores are just over the bridges ~ and Boston is just a bit more than an hour away. 

Important Phone Numbers 

Police Emergencies 477-1212
Business 539-1480
Fire Emergencies 477-1234
Business 539-1454
MA Poison Ctr. 1-800-682-9211
Town Clerk 539-1416
Public Library 539-1435
Senior Citizens Ctr. 539-1441
Cape Cod Hospital 508-771-1800
Falmouth Hospital 508-548-5300 

Schools 

Supt. Of schools 539-1500
Indian educational program 539-1557
Elementary school 539-1520
Middle school 539-1550 

Regardless of what land road you take, Bourne is the "Gateway Town" to Cape Cod. Bourne is located on both the mainland side of the Cape Cod Canal and on the peninsula itself. The two highway access bridges to the Cape are the Bourne and the Sagamore and are located in the town of Bourne.

These two, high-level highway bridges over the canal and the railroad bridge at Buzzards Bay were all constructed during the same period, from 1933 to 1935. 

Bourne, a primarily residential community with seven villages, hugs Buzzards Bay on both sides of the Cape Cod Canal.  

President Grover Cleveland was attracted to this community because of theabundant trout. He decided to set up his summer White house at Monument Beach in the 1890's. That house is long gone, but one vestige - his personal train station - is on view at the Aptucxet Trading Post Museum, a reconstructed version of this country's first place of commerce, where Pilgrims traded with Native Americans and the Dutch. Also visible from here - and from the Cape Cod Canal bike path, which runs right past the post - is the intriguing Vertical Lift Railroad Bridge, which was built in 1935; its track moves up or down to permit passage, respectively of ships and trains. Cataumet with its winding roads is the most upscale village in Bourne. Buzzards Bay with its Main Street paralleling the Canal has most of the shops.  

Somewhat introverted and intent on its own old fashioned pleasures, Bourne is best savored by those seeking the very, very quiet life. 

Bourne has one public beach: Monument Beach. Though the beach is small and pebbly, it's very picturesque.  

While many people think of Cape Cod as a whole, it is actually made up of 15 distinct towns. From Provincetown at the tip of the Cape to Chatham. Cape Cod is a place for breathing deeply, taking a moment to stop and look around, and being glad you are alive. Once you have experienced the natural beauty and charm of the region, you will want to return to "Olde Cape Cod", if only in memory. 

The "Cape", as it is fondly known to its countless admires, offers some of America's most exceptional scenery. In 1961, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy established the Cape Cod National Seashore. It includes more than 50 miles of white sandy beaches and 27,000 acres of unspoiled landscape. 

Cape Cod offers some of the most magnificent sand dunes and high sand cliffs on the Atlantic coast of North America. Long stretches of sand beaches, extensive salt marches, ponds, bays, streams, rivers, harbors, herring runs, and world famous cranberry bogs are just a few of the many beautiful facets that the Cape Cod landscape has to offer. 

Besides the abundance of summertime water related activities such as swimming, boating, surfing, calming, and fishing, Cape Cod also offers antiquing on the historic Old Kings Highway (Route 6-A), bicycling along the scenic, 25-mile Cape Cod Rail Trail, experiencing the excitement of a whale-watch cruise, travelling aboard the Cape Cod Scenic Railroad, hiking the many nature trails, or visiting the many endangered lighthouses and picturesque windmills. 

The first people to discover Cape Cod were the explorers seeking gold, furs, spices or whatever else could be found to bring them o wealth. Though many believe the Vikings landed on Cape shores, there are no definite records of early explorers until the year 1602, when Bartholomew Gosnold, an Englishman seeking gold, anchored near Provincetown and was so delighted with the numbers of codfish in the waters around his ship that he gave the Cape the name it has borne ever since. 

Cape Cod is a sandy peninsula extending from the east coast of Massachusetts into the Atlantic Ocean. It is in the shape of a fishhook or, for some, of an arm bent at the elbow and forming a fist at land's end. Cape Cod is about 70 miles long, from the town of Bourne in the west to Provincetown in the northeast corner, and from one to twenty miles wide. 

It was in Provincetown, on the tip of the Cape, that the pilgrims made their first landing in 1620. It was off the shores of Provincetown that the Mayflower Compact, the proclamation of freedom that was the forerunner of the Declaration of Independence, was signed. 

Sandwich is both the oldest town on the Cape and, arguably, the quaintest. Towering oak trees and historic houses line its winding Main Street. Two early-19th century churches and the columned Greek Revival Town Hall, in service since 1834, surround the two squares. A 1640 gristmill still grinds corn beside bucolic Shawne Pond, which is frequented by swans, geese and ducks, and canoeists. To the north, villagers have built a boardwalk over the extensice salt marsh. Father east, Sandy Neck, one of Cape's most beautiful beaches, reaches into Cape Cod Bay. 

Sandwich was founded in 1637 by a contingent of Puritans looking for a quite place to worship. There is still an element of peacefulness in this little town located just a few miles from the Sagamore Bridge. 

Sandwich's claim to fame is its prominence as the home of the nation's first glass factories in the early to mid 19th centuries. The famous Boston and Sandwich Glass Company and others employed over 500 craftspeople in town. In fact, the town still supports a number of highly skilled glassmakers. Sandwich is fortunate to have two very well-endowed museums - the Heritage Plantation and the Sandwich Glass Musuem as well as several quirkier sites, like the Green Briar Nature Center & Jam Kitchen 

Many historic homesteads have been converted into charming B&Bs that welcome guests year-around. There are many excellent antique shops in the area. The town is a convenient base for exploring other parts of the Cape that may offer more lively activities, like the nightlife of Hyannis or the ocean beaches of Wellfleet. 

The town of Barnstable, the seat of Cape Cod's Barnstable County government, is made up of eight villages: Hyannis, Hyannisport, Barnstable Village, West Barnstable, Osterville, Centerville, Cotuit, and Marstons Mills. Along the north side of the Cape on Route 6A are Barnstable Village, with a compact Main Street anchored by an imposing granite county courthouse, and West Barnstable, containing a handful of delightful specialty stores and views of acres of salt marsh leading out to Cape Cod Bay. Along the south coast are Cotuit, Marstons Mills, Osterville and Centerville, all gracious residential sections.  

While Barnstable is an ideal location for exploring the rest of the Cape and the Islands, there's also fun to be had nearby.