Cape Cod History

1961: New Breed Senior Citizens who stay year-round; 1985: Whydah wreck found off Wellfleet

1985: Wreak of Pirate Ship Whydah discovered

On this day in 1985, treasure hunter Barry Clifford finally had proof that the wreck he was salvaging off Cape Cod was indeed the pirate ship Whydah. Lost in a violent storm off Wellfleet in 1716, the Whydah had gone to the bottom within sight of shore. Tales of the treasure that sank with the ship filled Clifford's childhood. His dream of finding the wreck became an obsession. When divers began to bring up pieces of eight and gold from the right time period, he was convinced they came from the legendary ship. But only when the words "The Whydah Gally 1716" appeared beneath the encrusted surface of a bell did Barry Clifford know for sure that he had indeed found the Whydah.

1961: The new face of postwar Cape Cod emerges
Fifteen years after WW2, a new breed of settlers start arriving on these shores

It took the completion of major sections of the new interstate highway system built during the Eisenhower administration i n the 1950s to turn our peninsula into a modern resort area where summer vacationers became summer residents and as they retired, year-round citizens here. Cape Cod before these years really was "olde Cape Cod", a conservative, Republican bastion which was about to fall to the hordes of Boston area washashores who brought their liberal ways and Democrat politics with them. Read this article from today's date in 1961 below.