One man claims to have stood on the Norton Point beach nearly sixty years ago, at the very moment it gave way almost beneath his feet, opening Katama Bay to the Atlantic. It was the afternoon of August 31, 1954, and J. Gordon “Pete” Ogden III – an Oak Bluffs native, paleobotanist, and specialist in the study of inland waters – later wrote that he went for a walk along the bay side of Norton Point just a few hours after a hurricane had spun out to sea.
By Tom Dunlop
In the usual quirky way of Chappaquiddickers, they often call their home an island even during those eras when it’s very much a peninsula, attached to the rest of Martha’s Vineyard by the barrier beach known as Norton Point. And Norton Point is so-called even though it has no “point” at all. But why? And who was Norton?
By Tom Dunlop
The Norton Point inlet seems to have an inherently contrary nature. People want it open when it’s not, and they want it closed when it’s open. But when they try to take matters into their own hands, nature has won every time but one.
By Tom Dunlop
This spring Tiffany Smalley of Aquinnah becomes the second Island Wampanoag to graduate from Harvard College. Here she reflects on her connections with the first – who lived 350 years ago.
By Tiffany Smalley
One foggy July day at Lucy Vincent Beach, my four baby-sitting charges and I built a sand castle. It was my first summer on the Island.
By Luanne Rice
I feel as if I’m in graduate school and Martha’s Vineyard is my field of study.
By Nicki Miller
Since the Patriots Day storm of 2007, the breakthrough at Norton Point beach has caused powerful currents to surge through Edgartown harbor, and substantial erosion along Chappy’s south shore. This feat of nature has happened before and will surely happen again – perhaps more dramatically.
By Tom Dunlop
The Stanwoods are no strangers to sheep. At one time Eleanor was a professional shearer, and together they have raised sheep on the Vineyard, on and off, for many years.
By Geoff Currier
To survive the chilly economic winds of Martha’s Vineyard, one generally has two choices: Patch together several jobs into a livelihood, or start your own business.
By Jim Miller
Need a little inspiration for some early season fun? Here are five ideas for the months of May and June.
By Simone McCarthy
Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, an Aquinnah Wampanoag, graduated from Harvard College in 1665, the first Native American to earn an undergraduate degree there. This excerpt from Caleb’s Crossing, a new historical novel by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Geraldine Brooks, imagines Caleb’s first encounter with the book’s fictional young narrator, Bethia Mayfield, the daughter of an early Island minister.
If you’re not an Islander, that doesn’t mean your child can’t be one. The number of Vineyard births is increasing, along with the maternity resources at the new hospital and among private providers across Martha’s Vineyard.
By Moira C. Silva
