Nantucket Official Guide 2014-2015 | Page 38

NANTUCKET ISLAND

• The eastern coast of Nantucket was the
first place in the US to see the first sunrise
of the new millennium.
• In 1917, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard
unsuccessfully attempted to secede from
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
• Nantucket has the largest concentration
of Native American place names in the
country. Nantucket is translated as “far
away land” in the Wampanoag dialect.
• Nantucket was part of Dukes County, New
York until 1691. The governor imposed the
name “Sherburne” on the town.

Trivia

• When the whaling era ended, commercial
shipping gave way to recreational boating.
Daily excursions from the mainland on
the graceful old steamers brought the first
summer visitors.
• There is a harpoon in the Whaling
Museum that was removed from a sperm
whale caught twice by the same man –
nine years apart.
• R.H. Macy was a Nantucket boy who
made his mark in retailing. Macy’s
Thanksgiving Day parade balloons were
designed by longtime summer resident
Tony Sarg.

• In 1795, the town successfully petitioned
the General Court of Massachusetts to
change the name from Sherburne to
Town of Nantucket.

• Frederick Douglass gave his first speech
before an all-white audience in the
Nantucket Atheneum’s Great Hall in 1841.

• Shortly after 1700, Quakerism began
to take root and, by the end of the 18th
century, the Society of Friends was the
major on-island denomination.

• In the last two decades, Nantucket’s
tourist season has extended from April
to December. Visitors are increasingly
attracted by the quiet beauty of the offseason, the charm of a Nantucket Noel
and the abundance of Spring festivals.

©Courtesy of Nantucket Historical Association

• From 1840-1870, gold was discovered
in California, and many islanders went
west to seek their fortunes. The island’s
population plunged from an estimated
10,000 to 4,000.

36 • 2014 Official Guide to Nantucket

• Sheep storms were what islanders called
periods of intense fogginess which often
presided over the moors in late June and
early July. In the 1800’s, they knew that
after several days the fogs would drench
the thick coats of the many sheep grazing
in pasturing sections called “Sheep
Commons.” Inevitably, after the fog
came hot, sunny days during which their
coats would dry. Time for shearing, and
then-famous Sheep Shearing Festivals,
marked by fun and games and food for
one and all.