The Portland Gale of 1898, and the Cat that Saved a Life
Of all the storms that struck New England over the centuries, only one was named after its victim: The Portland Gale of Nov. 26, 1898. The monumental double storm killed more than 400 people, sinking...
View ArticleThe Six Places That Suffered the Coldest Temperature Ever in a New England State
April in New England may seem cold, but it’s nothing like the months when the coldest temperature is reported. Look for the coldest day of the year to happen in late January, just about the time when a...
View ArticleWhen the British Bombarded Falmouth
When the War of 1812 came to Cape Cod, only a few towns such as Falmouth resisted the British. In response, the British bombarded Falmouth. The town still remembers the attack, and evidence of British...
View ArticleA Historic Train Ride in Each of New England’s Six States
What better way to take in New England’s fall foliage than a historic train ride? There’s no danger of running off the road while taking in the beauty wrought by Mother Nature’s paintbrush. New England...
View ArticleThe John Rutledge Shipwreck: A Horrifying Ordeal and One Miraculous Survival
Just after midnight on Feb. 20, 1856, the first mate of the packet ship John Rutledge began scratching out quick log entries. “Midnight, light winds and the ship making very little headway through...
View ArticleThe Telegraph Hills of Massachusetts
Along the east coast of Massachusetts stretching from Boston to Martha's Vineyard lies a series of Telegraph Hills. So named around 1801, they once belonged to a communication system likened to a...
View ArticleAnnie Sullivan Escapes the Poorhouse (But Not Criticism for Being Poor and...
Annie Sullivan overcame her disability and crushing poverty to win worldwide fame as the teacher of the deaf-blind Helen Keller. But to some of the people who helped her along the way, she would remain...
View ArticleHow the Codfish Started the American Revolution
The American Revolution was to some extent a fight over the big, stupid, slow-moving codfish. Codfish were by far colonial New England’s biggest export. The codfish was so important to New England that...
View ArticleHow Ptown Got So Gay, Gay, Gay
Ptown, as so many know it, was once a shabby old seaport that had fallen on hard times. Yankees lived on one side of town, Portuguese on the other. When the railroad came, it put the Portuguese on the...
View ArticleSix Fun Facts About Kurt Vonnegut on Cape Cod
Kurt Vonnegut wrote the kind of books that students in the 1960s bought to stoke their outrage and disdain. Outrage over the war in Vietnam, disdain for their conformist, establishment parents. They...
View ArticleThe Buzzards Bay Leper Colony: Tragic Exile
Around the turn of the 20th century, a terrifying new kind of immigrant arrived in Massachusetts: the sufferer of Hansen’s disease. If you had it, you were stigmatized as a leper and cast out of...
View ArticleWhen the British Bombarded Falmouth
When the War of 1812 came to Cape Cod, only a few towns such as Falmouth resisted the British. In response, the British bombarded Falmouth. The town still remembers the attack, and evidence of British...
View ArticleA Historic Train Ride in Each of New England’s Six States
What better way to take in New England’s fall foliage than a historic train ride? There’s no danger of running off the road while taking in the beauty wrought by Mother Nature’s paintbrush. New England...
View ArticleThe John Rutledge Shipwreck: A Horrifying Ordeal and One Miraculous Survival
Just after midnight on Feb. 20, 1856, the first mate of the packet ship John Rutledge began scratching out quick log entries. “Midnight, light winds and the ship making very little headway through...
View ArticleThe Telegraph Hills of Massachusetts
Along the east coast of Massachusetts stretching from Boston to Martha’s Vineyard lies a series of Telegraph Hills. So named around 1801, they once belonged to a communication system likened to a...
View ArticleAnnie Sullivan Escapes the Poorhouse (But Not the Stigma of Being Poor and...
Annie Sullivan overcame her disability and crushing poverty to win worldwide fame as the teacher of the deaf-blind Helen Keller. But to some of the people who helped her along the way, she would remain...
View ArticleHow the Codfish Started the American Revolution
The American Revolution was to some extent a fight over the big, stupid, slow-moving codfish. Codfish were by far colonial New England’s biggest export. The codfish was so important to New England that...
View ArticleHow Ptown Got So Gay, Gay, Gay
Ptown, as so many know it, was once a shabby old seaport that had fallen on hard times. Yankees lived on one side of town, Portuguese on the other. When the railroad came, it put the Portuguese on the...
View ArticleSix Fun Facts About Kurt Vonnegut on Cape Cod
Kurt Vonnegut wrote the kind of books that students in the 1960s bought to stoke their outrage and disdain. Outrage over the war in Vietnam, disdain for their conformist, establishment parents. They...
View ArticleThe Buzzards Bay Leper Colony: Tragic Exile
Around the turn of the 20th century, a terrifying new kind of immigrant arrived in Massachusetts: the sufferer of Hansen’s disease. If you had it, you were stigmatized as a leper and cast out of...
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