Cape Cod History

1941: Joseph C. Lincoln's "The New Hope" extolled. 1975: Seashore Park bans nude sunbathing.

1975: National Seashore bans nude sunbathing - Nudity Ban Aimed at Cape Cod Shore

Iin 1975 the National Park Service, professing concern about preserving a fragile world of dune and wave, beach plum and seashell, has come up with a novel solution: It is proposing to ban nudity within the boundaries of the Cape Cod National Seashore. The government proposed nfines of up to $500 and jail terms up to six minths. The situation at Bush Hollow Beach in Truro reached the breaking point one day the previous August when a park ranger coiunted 1,200 "nudists" which he estimated were 60 male, 40% female and 15-20 fully-clothed observers, 6 photographers and 20 "homosexuals."

The news stories of the day did not explain how the ranger knew that the six were "homosexuals."

Joe Lincoln publishes another best-seller - "The New Hope" is about Cape Cod in 1814

On this day in 1941, Chatham's famous author Joseph C. Lincoln published another best-seller.  Below is the book review that day in the New York Times.  It would not be an exaggeration to say that the enormous success of his books and movies in this era was equal to a multi-million dollar PR campaign for the Cape's tourism.

Cape Cod in 1814; THE NEW HOPE.
By Joseph C. Lincoln and Freeman Lincoln.
498 pp. New York: Coward-McCann. $2.50.

When you come across a book like "The New Hope," by Joseph C. Lincoln and Freeman Lincoln, you are sorry you ever used the word "yarn" and "salty" lightly, because here is a true and accurate use for them. You have the feeling that you are sitting on a Cape Cod wharf listening to an old sea captain spin a yarn... read the rest below.