Cultural Preservation by the National Seashore
Through the emphasis in the legislation to reify the Cape’s distinctive culture, it becomes seen as a resource, which can be commodified and must in turn be protected to prevent its loss through changing commercial interest and gentrification. For this reason, the National Seashore must “extend protection efforts beyond natural resources and physical features to encompass the traditional and characteristic patterns of life that shape, and have been shaped, by the landscape.”
Cape Cod has been noted for having a uniquely rich and diverse community that has developed as a result of its eclectic history and the residents, whose way of life has become a critical part of what the Cape is perceived to be. The sense that one gets from spending time on the Cape seems particularly difficult to qualify but it has been “variously characterized in legislative record as ‘quaint’, ‘contemplative’, ‘inspirational’, and representing a ‘mutuality of understanding between man and nature’”. This last categorization is a prevailing sentiment that throughout the Cape’s history, its residents have been described as living in a way that is more sensitive and in tune with the natural surroundings.
One of nineteen extant supplementary sketches for inclusion in the 1896 illustrated edition of Thoreau's Cape Cod.
This notion that residents live in a way that is closer to nature was written about by Henry David Thoreau, a long time enjoyer of the Cape who spent time walking its beaches, reflecting on this dynamic. Thoreau saw “the seashore as a place where humans live in constant awareness of nature as the ultimate creator and destroyer of life” and heralded that “it is those who recognize themselves as a part of the ocean’s infinite cycling who live in the greatest balance between culture and nature, matter and spirit.” Living right on the ocean and witnessing this balance between culture and nature is what engenders for residents this authentic and sensitive communion with the natural environment. This sensitivity in part fosters the small coastal town aesthetic and the foundation of what it means to be a Cape Codder.
Visitors stopping to take pictures outside the Highland Lighthouse in Truro.
Formerly a stretch of coastline that had been accessible to anyone, the Outer Beach had been used unimpeded for centuries for commercial interests, recreation, and settlement. Throughout the second half of the 20th century it became threatened as encroaching development wanted to partition it up, restricting access for the general public. In becoming a National Park, the Cape was part of a national movement to preserve certain natural places, engendering a specific type of nature. Its maintenance has also focused beyond measures of environmental protection to also protect cultural resources. This has the potential to reify dynamic cultural phenomena by trying to distill what is the most authentic Cape Cod and then project that image. These unintended effects of the National Seashore that place specific temporal and spatial restrictions on its use need to be considered alongside the benefits of having the stunning wilderness of the Outer Beach be preserved, which is essential to the character of Cape Cod and makes it the destination that it has become.
