EASTHAM – Sometimes you have to be bold and daring.
John F. Kennedy was bold and daring, Bill Burke, longtime historian for the Cape Cod National Seashore, told attendees outside the Salt Pond Visitor Center Aug. 6. Kennedy, he noted, supported a vision for a national park on the Cape that, while initially unpopular with many, now stands as one of the region’s most prized recreational jewels.
In many ways, Burke said, the story of the Cape Cod National Seashore began decades before it was first established. It started with Kennedy’s birth in 1917 and the Kennedy Family’s purchase of its Hyannisport compound in 1928.
“So now you have a potential future lawmaker with deep Cape Cod roots,” he said.
It only made sense then that the Friends of the Cape Cod National Seashore would collaborate with the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum to celebrate the 65th anniversary of President Kennedy’s signing of the bill that would formally create the Seashore on Aug. 7, 1961. On a warm early summer evening last week, guests gathered outside the Visitor Center to celebrate the occasion with food, drink, conversation and the music of the a capella group Hyannis Sound.
“This place holds our lives, our memories, our milestones, family traditions, our work, field trips for learning, impact on local commerce, quiet morning and sunset celebrations,” said Julia Bateman, executive director of the Friends of the Cape Cod National Seashore, the park’s philanthropic arm. “The combination of the personal and the practical is worth our collected efforts to preserve for another 65 years.”
In his keynote address, Burke outlined the sometimes contentious path local advocates and state and federal lawmakers traversed in their efforts to establish the Seashore, which today encompasses 40 miles of shoreline across the towns of Chatham, Orleans, Wellfleet, Truro, Eastham and Provincetown. It started with a 1955 study, “Our Vanishing Shoreline,” which found that just 6 percent of coastal areas across the United States were available for public recreation.
After an initial bill to create the Cape Seashore in 1957 fell flat in large part due to plans to take private property through eminent domain, Kennedy, now a U.S. senator, assigned the work of drafting a new bill to two of his legislative aides, Fred Holborn and David Martin, in 1958. The final bill, submitted with fellow Massachusetts Senator Leverett Saltonstall, eventually was signed into law by President Kennedy in 1961.
Park Superintendent Jennifer Flynn said the collaborative, regional effort that helped create the Seashore still defines how the Seashore is sustained and operated today. That includes the use of federal funding, but also private donations and the help of many local groups, organizations and volunteers.
“Cape Cod National Seashore was not created to be a government reservation or something to be set aside as an island or a castle on a hill,” she said. “It was established to be a shared resource and a shared responsibility with the communities that are part of this park.”
Last week’s event also included the presentation of the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum’s annual $2,500 scholarship, which was accepted by Falmouth resident Sebastian Verslycke.
Verslycke, who graduated in May as one of just 25 students nationwide to represent the U.S. at United World College in the Netherlands, reflected on an oft-quoted line from President Kennedy in his scholarship essay: “A rising tide lifts all boats.” In that spirit, he said, working together across cultural and political lines is the way for the Seashore and other groups and organizations to move ahead into the future.
“In a time of increasing polarization, I believe this commitment to openness is essential to sustaining strong, inclusive communities,” he said.
Paul Hart Miller, chair of the Kennedy Museum board of directors, read a citation presented for the occasion from Gov. Maura Healey in celebration of the anniversary. In the citation, Healey said the Seashore’s creation represents a “defining act of environmental stewardship born from the conviction that America’s most treasured natural landscapes belong not to any individual or single generation, but to all generations.”
Vince Tompkins, president of the Friends of the Cape Cod National Seashore’s board of directors, said in his closing remarks that the Seashore’s creation represents something “unique and important and priceless.”
“The Seashore I think of as a place where nature and democracy meet, where the sea and the sky, the dunes and the forest trails belong to and are accessible to everyone, no matter where they come from, what they look like or what their politics, religion or income might be,” he said.
A History Of The Cape Cod National Seashore
1917: John F. Kennedy is born. Kennedy would champion efforts to create the Cape Cod National Seashore as a U.S. senator before signing the bill creating the Seashore on Aug. 7, 1961.
1955: A study, “Our Vanishing Shoreline”, finds that only 6 percent of U.S. coastal areas were open for public recreation. The study identified Cape Cod as the number one priority for a national seashore.
1956: Work begins on “Mission 66,” a 10-year design and construction project that cost $1 billion between 1956 and 1966. “For those 10 years, the National Parks Service was going to build 100 new visitor centers, create new national parks, especially in the east to serve the northeast corridor population,” Cape Cod National Seashore Historian Bill Burke said. Salt Pond Visitor Center was one of the prototypes.
1957: First bills are filed to create the Cape Cod National Seashore, including one sponsored by Rep. Thomas “Tip” O’Neill, a part-time Harwich resident. “This falls flat, however,” Burke said. Plans to take private homes by eminent domain fostered strong opposition. Public hearings held in Eastham and Chatham were contentious.
1958: The work of drafting a revised bill to create the Seashore is assigned to two of Senator Kennedy’s legislative aides: Fred Holburn and David Martin. Martin was later replaced by Jonathan Moore. “I’m sure most of you don’t know these people, but they spent a lot of time on Cape Cod,” Burke said. “They listened to the opposition to the park.”
1959-1961: A new bill is put forward by Kennedy and Senator Leverett Saltonstall to create the Seashore. The bill called for no eminent domain or taking of private homes, the use of 3,800 undeveloped tracts to create the Seashore, and the use of federal funding, a first for creating national park property. The legislation also created a citizens advisory commission made of residents from the Seashore’s member towns.
1960: Kennedy becomes youngest person ever elected president.
Aug. 7, 1961: President Kennedy officially signs the bill creating the Cape Cod National Seashore at noon in the Oval Office.
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