Cape Cod History

1985: Billboards, asphalt, help Cape tourism. 1987: Volunteers Mobilizing to Save Stranded Whales

Cape Cod has no scenery left to spoil the view.
Everything is filled in and paved over

This month in 1985, the Christian Science Monitor bemoaned the absence of billboards in many tourist areas and suggested - tongue in cheek - that Cape Cod's success at attracting visitors was because of our nice billboards and because everything was paved over; "this is one reason that places like Florida, southern California, and even Cape Cod are so popular. They have no scenery left to spoil the view. Everything is filled in and paved over, leaving no ugly contours caused by trees, hills, or bays."

Reminds one of the Ogden Nash couplet;

"I think that I shall never see,
 A Poem as lovely as a tree.
 In fact, unless the billboards fall
 I'll never see a tree at all."

In reality, billboards have been noutlawed on The Cape for many decades.

Now on with this very amusing Monitor spoof.

Save our billboards!

By Guernsey Le Pelley

Rumor has it that Oregon is not crowded with tourist traffic. Studies are being made to correct this situation. The main reason hordes of people are not jamming Oregon roads is that the state has no billboards. There are vast areas with nothing to look at. The modern tourist cannot be expected to travel any distance exposed to frightening expanses of what might be described as raw scenery. Many have not seen it before and of course feel threatened.

1987: Volunteers Mobilizing to Save Stranded Whales

On this day in 1987 as the season neared when the nor'easters pound Cape Cod Bay, hundreds of volunteers were being organized and trained to rescue the pilot whales and other large marine mammals that are often driven ashore by the storms.
   On one occasion last December at least 60 pilot whales were stranded on bay beaches in Brewster, Orleans, Eastham and Wellfleet. Two weeks later, another 30 to 40 pilot whales were driven ashore in these same areas.
   When word of the first strandings was spread, scores of Cape Codders rushed to the beaches. Many plunged into the frigid waters to push or heave the pilot whales, most of them 25 feet long or more and all weighing several tons, out into deeper water.

Tourists will drive miles to anywhere as long as a road is protected from unsightly wooded hillsides by continuous lines of billboards, reassuring the traveler that he is in no danger of leaving civilization. Preferably the signs should be about the standardized comforts ahead, such as motels, fast-food houses, and stores selling cheap candy and souvenirs.

This is one reason that places like Florida, southern California, and even Cape Cod are so popular. They have no scenery left to spoil the view. Everything is filled in and paved over, leaving no ugly contours caused by trees, hills, or bays.

Also, Oregon is blemished by what can be described as "natural'' shoreline. This is land that consists of grass, trees, and beaches going right down to the ocean. It means that tourists have nothing to look at except plain, ordinary water, sand, and misshapen rock formations.

Florida has wisely corrected all this and hidden the water from view by building huge condominiums in front of it, thus presenting an unending panorama of pink stucco, nighttime orange and blue lighting arrangements, and large parking lots painted with interesting diagonal white lines. The parking lots are believed to hold the greatest attraction for tourists.

What Oregon can do at this late date to hide its unsightly natural scenery is not immediately apparent. Usually cutting down the trees and bulldozing the land for commercial construction is a starting point.

Tourists stand ready just outside the Oregon border, waiting, one might say, for the high sign.