The small structure has been doing duty since 1838, but was almost taken back by the sea due to the constant erosion and changing Cape Cod coast. The Nauset Light was to be dis- mantled by the Coast Guard, but a private trust raised the funds to save it, and it was moved some 300 feet in 1996 to its present location and still serves ships at sea today. It is consid- ered one of the most photographed lighthouses in the northeast, and looking at the images you can see why. The day before, when we had
searched out the Coast Guard Motor Lifeboat CG36500, we learned that the rescue happened out of the Cha- tham Coast Guard Station, and so we began to meander down towards that coastal town. Cape Cod has an unusual terrain.
We have said that it is mostly a left over from the Ice Age, but the unusual thing is that it is mainly crushed rock from those thousands of years ago and lacks almost any glacial erratic boulders from this epoch. Except for one big one—the Doane Rock. Our route just happened to pass near by it, so I pushed for a short detour to stop by and see the Doane Rock for our- selves. Shira brings me to art muse- ums and lighthouses; I bring her to ancient psychiatric hospitals and big rocks. Doane Rock, an “erratic” is the largest exposed boulder on Cape Cod. It stands 18 feet high and extends below the ground an estimated 12 feet. Harriman State Park is full of these and some are far greater, but when you are the only girl in town you get noticed. Crossing back and forth along the Cape
we rode by the Eastham Windmill. This looked like another digital moment, so we stopped and by doing so learned that this windmill is the oldest on the Cape and was built back in 1680. It has been moved a number of times since then and seems happy and content in the park in the East- ham historic district where it was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1999. Continuing along anything but US 6, we
headed towards the Cape Cod town of Cha- tham. Echoing our stop the previous day at
66 BMW OWNERS NEWS January 2017
Marconi Beach, we visited the famous Cha- tham Marconi Site. Although today the Cape is known for summer vacations, the wonderful coast and great seafood, in the late 19th and early 20th century, Cape Cod was also a center for communication tech- nology, and it is good to know that, in our age of instantaneous communication and the internet, that worldwide communica- tions really began here. The Chatham Mar- coni/RCA wireless facility changed the world, made maritime communications a reality, and during wartime, helped the U.S. and its allies to defeat the Nazis. Today the
buildings house a marvelous museum, and the folks there were very helpful and knowl- edgeable on the history of the facility. We thought we’d stop in for a short bit, but spent a good hour exploring and learning about how this place saved lives, beat the Germans and changed the world. Our second stop in Chatham would be
the U.S. Coast Guard Life Boat Station. It was here on February 18, 1952, where the SOS came in from the freighter Pendleton, split in half off the Cape Cod coast and sinking. The brave Coast Guard men took out Motor Lifeboat CG36500 from here and
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