Cape Cod History

1908: Experiment flooded cranberry bogs and other unusual events

What we were like exactly a century ago

These amusing stories from Cape Cod over one hundred years ago were culled from various newspaper archives.

FLOODING TO AID CRANBERRY BOGS
The Experiment in Artificial Watering of Cape Cod Acreage, If Successful, Will Be Boon to Industry.

The Cape Cod cranberry growers are watching with interest an experiment which is being tried here of flowing cranberry bogs by pumping water within the encircling dikes from artesian wells.

In the winter of 1908 this was an "experiment", but today it is the routine method of cultivating our bogs by flooding in winter then wait until the water freezes so a cart or sander can go on the bogs to spread sand which settles eveninly to the bog when the ice melts. The sand kill weeds but not the cranberry vine.

ONLY ONE CAPE COD TOWN IS WITHOUT RAILROAD.
Mashpee is the only town on Cape Cod through which the railroad does not run.

RETIRED CAPE COD SEA CAPTAIN
Captain William Freeman of Brewster not only enjoys the dignity of being the oldest person in the town, but is reputed to be the oldest retired sea captain now living on Cape Cod, that snug harbor of so many stalwart skippers.

QUEER THINGS CAUGHT IN CAPE COD WEIRS.
Horse Mackerel, Some Weighing Half a Ton, Are Frequently Taken--Men Fishing for Herring Catch Whales, and One Trap Took a Bone Shark Recently that Was 17 Feet Long, and Belongs to the Arctic Regions--One Trap Had a $2000 Prize in Whalebone in it This Season, but the Whale Objected to Remaining--Sea Turtle, Champion Lobsters and Some Southern Fishes Also Captured--Shadine, a New Food Fish, Caught for the First Time This Year.

CLIFF AT THE HIGHLAND OF CAPE COD RECEDES
At the Rate of Eighteen Inches a Year.

Bank of Clay 140 Feet Above the Sea Stands Apparently Firm Against the Bombardments of Wind and Sea in Winter Storms, but Erosion is Steady--How the Movement Westward of the Cliff's Edge is Measured--One of the Most Picturesque and Interesting Spots on the New England Coast.