The Cape Cod National Seashore – Ep 60 with Ethan Carr

In the mid-nineteenth century,

Thoreau recognized the importance of preserving the complex and fragile

landscape of Cape Cod, with its weathered windmills, expansive beaches,

dunes, wetlands, harbors, and the lives that flourished here, supported

by the maritime industries and saltworks. One hundred years later, the

National Park Service―working with a group of concerned locals,

then-senator John F. Kennedy, and other supporters―took on the challenge

of meeting the needs of a burgeoning public in this region of unique

natural beauty and cultural heritage.

To those who were settled in

the remote wilds of the Cape, the impending development was

threatening, and as the award-winning historian Ethan Carr explains, the

visionary plan to create a national seashore came very close to

failure. Success was achieved through unprecedented public outreach, as

the National Park Service and like-minded Cape Codders worked to

convince entire communities of the long-term value of a park that could

accommodate millions of tourists. Years of contentious negotiations

resulted in the innovative compromise between private and public

interests now known as the “Cape Cod model.”

The Greatest Beach is essential reading for all who are concerned with protecting the nation’s gradually diminishing cultural landscapes. In his final analysis of Cape Cod National Seashore, Carr poses provocative questions about how to balance the conservation of natural and cultural resources in regions threatened by increasing visitation and development.

Ethan Carr, PhD, FASLA, is a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the director of the MLA program. He is a landscape historian and preservationist specializing in public landscapes, particularly municipal and national park planning and design.