Top 10 Fun Cape Cod Facts

Image provided by SurfWellfleet.com

Cape Cod is home to many things. Beautiful beaches, fantastic golf courses, top restaurants, and splendid hiking trails – just to name a few.

But did you know that Cape Cod boasts some amazing trivia?

Yep, the region is rich in interesting and little known facts.

Here are the Top 10 fun facts about Cape Cod that will no doubt leave you yearning for a visit.

1. First landing of the Pilgrims in the New World on November 11, 1620.  The Pilgrims stayed five weeks in Provincetown before sailing across Cape Cod Bay to Plymouth.

2. Land of Lighthouses. There are more lighthouses in and around Cape Cod than any other county in America.

3. The Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown stands at 252-feet and is the tallest all-granite structure in America.

4. Coast Guard Beach in Eastham, MA is regularly named to Conde Nast Traveler’s Top Ten Beaches in the US.

5. Cape Playhouse in Dennis, MA is America’s oldest professional theatre, having starred such luminaries as Jessica Tandy, Bette Davis (who was an usherette here), Gregory Peck and Basil Rathbone.

6. The First Congregational Church in Wellfleet, MA, a handsome 1850 Greek Revival—replete with a stained glass window depicting a clipper ship—is the only town clock which rings ship’s time (one, five and nine o’clock are two bells; two, six and ten o’clock are four bells; three, seven and eleven o’clock are six bells; and four, eight and twelve o’clock are eight bells. Half hours are struck by adding one stroke to the corresponding even hours). Ripley’s Believe It or Not has listed Wellfleet’s town clock’s method of ringing time, as have many newspapers and magazines.

7. Old King’s Highway, at 39 miles long, is the longest contiguous historic district in America and contains four centuries of architecture.

8. Cape Cinema, the 92-seat theater on the grounds of the Cape Playhouse, with its 6,400 square-foot Art Deco ceiling mural of Prometheus opened July 1, 1930, world-premiering The Wizard of Oz. Its mural is the largest in North America!

9. Orleans, MA has the distinction of being the only Cape Cod town fired upon by enemy craft—first by the British during the War of 1812 and then by Germans during both World War I and II.

10. The Mayflower Compact, the first written ‘constitution’ written and ratified in the New World, an agreement whereby a free people would self-govern, was drafted in Cape Cod Bay. It is from this historic document, signed during the Pilgrims five-week stay in Provincetown, that the fullness of America’s liberties would eventually emerge.

Book A Cape Cod Vacation!

What is it about Cape Cod do you love?

Come explore what many of the Cape Cod towns have to offer – and perhaps, stumble upon some other little known facts about the area.

Book a vacation package at one of the outstanding hotels on Cape Cod - and see why the region is so special, and so historic!

Follow us @CapeCodHotels.