Morse Payne Cornerstone Project

At the December 4, 2009 Cape Cod Astronomical Society meeting Guest speaker Mike Farber presented an overview of the Cornerstone Project in which through the auspices of the Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School (CCLCS) he is documenting the surveying techniques used by early settlers of Cape Cod to establish town and property boundaries. He highlighted the original work done by Morris Paine tracking the settlers’ creation of a natural compass rose site in Cape Cod Bay with reference points on Race Point in Provincetown and Yarmouth. Mr. Farber is seeking additional team members from the CCAS community to locate boundary historic markers that the settlers established in the 1640 timeframe and thereafter. Read more...

History uncovered at Orleans windmill site

By Susan Milton
smilton@capecodonline.com

ORLEANS - The Jonathan Young Windmill looks at home on Town Cove in Orleans, but the historic landmark has moved around since its construction in the early 1700s.

Yesterday about 15 people walked through the woods to see the windmill's likely first home on a hill in South Orleans. Marking the spot is a circle of large foundation stones rediscovered recently by amateur historian Michael Farber of Chatham.

"Everything fits," said miller and historian James Owens of Eastham, among those who came to see Farber's rare discovery in the town's watershed off Route 28.

Even the stones in the middle of the circle were historically correct, Owens said, describing how four to five-ton millstones "floated" in a support on a central foundation to keep weight off the walls of the mill. Read more ...

Michael Farber moves closer to solving windmill mystery

ORLEANS -- Michael Farber was in possession of a brick, an unusual brick, from a breezy site near what was once called the Namskaket River. He showed it to Jim Owens, who is locally famous as a font of windmill knowledge. Read more ...

Cape boundary hunters get lesson in archeology

From the April 16 2009 issue of the Cape Cod Times
Cape boundary hunters get lesson in archeologyBy Susan Milton
smilton@capecodonline.com
April 16, 2009

BREWSTER - There were no tractor-trailer trucks and cars whizzing by Sam Higgins, Jim Rogers and Tim Doane in 1803 at the Orleans-Brewster line.

But the 1803 trio left enough clues to guide another band of boundary hunters yesterday as they narrowed their search for the same large boulder, marked with an "S" more than 300 years ago.

"I think we're real close to it right in here," Steve Ellis of Orleans said yesterday, as he stood on Route 6A with Lighthouse Charter School students and teachers, historian Michael Farber of Chatham and other searchers. Read more...

Web Exclusive: Pilgrim’s Progress

In 1620, the Pilgrims rounded the north tip of Cape Cod and anchored at what is now Provincetown Harbor, Mass. During the next few days, explorations were made from this harbor by Myles Standish and company culminating in the discovery and subsequent theft of corn at what we now call Corn Hill in Truro. That theft caused the “first encounter” with the Native Americans at First Encounter Beach in Eastham, Mass. Much of this is taught in our history classes and is common knowledge. What isn’t so well known is that William Bradford of the Mayflower noted that “The bay is so round and circling, that before we could come to anchor we went round all the points of the compass.” Read more...