History lives in classic rock

CUMMAQUID — Michael Watson knew his family's restaurant property straddled the Yarmouth-Barnstable town line. But he had no idea it might be playing host to an ancient Cape Cod landmark.

Last week, members of a group investigating how the Pilgrims established the boundaries of the first Cape Cod towns found a large, flat granite boulder nestled in the marsh mud behind Anthony's Cummaquid Inn. Engraved on the top of the rock are the letters Y and B, with a small x in the middle.

Chatham historian Michael Farber and Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School teacher Daniella Garran believe the boulder may have been etched by Pilgrims in the early 17th century to mark the Yarmouth-Barnstable boundary line. Read more.

Tracking history in Pilgrim's footsteps

A group of Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School history students and a Chatham historian are hot on the trail of William Bradford's first perambulation of Cape Cod. Read more ...

Michael Farber presenting at Dennis Yarmouth School

On December 4th, Mike Farber will talk about how the Pilgrims used a sophisticated blend of surveying techniques to subdivide our lands. Our fore fathers knew the importance of the night sky for navigation and getting a bearing. Read more ...

December 13 Cornerstone Forum with Michael Farber and the Lighthouse Charter School

The Cornerstone Forum is returning to town after 375 years! By the 1630s, the Pilgrim Elders knew that Cape Cod was their New Promised Land. Boxed in by Massachusetts Bay Colony to the north and barren ground to the south and west, they could only head eastward! They came to Bound Brook at Quivet Creek to establish the Cape's first land survey. Read more...

Students search for the 'first Plymouth Rock'

From the August 24, 2008 issue of The Cape Cod Times
Students search for the 'first Plymouth Rock'

By Robin Lord
rlord@capecodonline.com
August 24, 2008

ORLEANS - It's a mystery that could prove how the Pilgrims set the boundaries for the first Cape Cod towns.

Called "The Cornerstones Project," the effort has already paid dividends for a Chatham man and a group of Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School students, who this spring discovered a boulder etched with a giant "X" in Orleans Town Cove. The rock may have been placed there by Pilgrims as a marker for the southernmost boundary of the town of Eastham.

"It just seems so top secret," said Joey Benedict, 13, of Dennis, who chose the Cornerstones seminar last spring. Read more...

Chatham man helps students unlock history's mysteries

From the August 24, 2008 issue of The Cape Cod Times
Chatham man helps students unlock history's mysteries

By Robin Lord
rlord@capecodonline.com
August 24, 2008

ORLEANS - Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School graduate Henry von Thaden was intrigued when he heard about an eight-week seminar last spring about trying to find the boundary markers the Pilgrims laid for the first Cape Cod towns.

"It was searching for stuff nobody thought would be down there," said the 14-year-old from Orleans during a recent visit to the class' most exciting discovery - a boulder in Town Cove with a giant "X" carved in it. The seminar, von Thaden said, "went over my expectations."

His classmates, their teachers, Daniella Garran and Paul Niles, and their community partner, Michael Farber of Chatham, believe the rock was placed there as a marker for an underwater site that pinpoints Eastham's southernmost boundary. Read more...

Chatham Man Spearheads Effort To Find Cape Cod Cornerstone

A map of Cape Cod and a portion of the South Shore covers one wall in Michael Farber’s Main Street apartment.  Different colored ribbons crisscross the wall, dividing the peninsula into a series of puzzle pieces.

            That’s fitting, because Farber, an attorney from West Virginia with long-standing ties to the area, is trying to solve a puzzle.  He’s looking for The Cornerstone.  Read More

Student sleuths hit the rocks

From the May 30, 2008 issue of The Cape Codder
Student sleuths hit the rocks

By Steve Desroches
Photos by Daniella Garran

ORLEANS - According to Indiana Jones, "X" never marks the spot when it comes to archaeology. But a classroom of students in Orleans begs to differ.

A group of middle school students at Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School is working with the Cornerstone Project, an effort spearheaded by Michael Farber of Chatham to locate stone markers and boulder clusters that might have been used by the Pilgrims as part of a land survey of Cape Cod marking old town boundaries and property lines. The work is part of many community partnerships the school forms with community members.

In an exciting development for these student archaeologists is a large rock in Orleans on the Sea Call Farm property with an "X" on it. Whether the "X" is hand carved or a strange natural coincidence remains to be seen, but the class is eager to find out. Read more...

Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School students, and Michael Farber, establish The Cornerstone Project

L to R: Morse Payne, Joey Benedict, Paul Niles, 

Daniel Brogan, Henry Von Thaden, Daniella Garran, Michael Farber

Two teachers, a group of Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School students, and their outside adviser, Michael Farber, have established The Cornerstone Project in 2008, working off a 1985 theory by retired architect and historian H. Morse Payne.

Payne surmised that around 1630, the Pilgrims set the original cornerstones for the first four towns, Sandwich, Barnstable, Yarmouth and Nauset, dividing the region according to the English pie-shaped surveying methods.
To survey the towns, the Pilgrims would have established a central point in the bay, using an east-west line from Wellfleet to Manomet in Plymouth, and a north-south line set along the magnetic north.


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