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Fort Hill Rural Historic District

Barnstable County, Massachusetts Registered Historic Place stubsEastham, MassachusettsHistoric districts in Barnstable County, MassachusettsHistoric districts on the National Register of Historic Places in MassachusettsNRHP infobox with nocat
National Register of Historic Places in Cape Cod National SeashoreUse mdy dates from August 2023
View from Fort Hill, Eastham MA
View from Fort Hill, Eastham MA

The Fort Hill Rural Historic District is a historic district encompassing two farmsteads with more than 200 years of history in Eastham, Massachusetts. The district is a 100-acre (40 ha) area of forest, fields, and salt marshes that was owned by the Knowles and Penninman families from 1742 to 1941. It has been part of the Cape Cod National Seashore since 1961. The area is dominated by the rise called "Fort Hill", which provides extensive views of the area and has its own rich history. The district includes the Edward Penniman House and Barn, previously listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Nauset Archeological District, a National Historic Landmark.The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Fort Hill Rural Historic District (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Fort Hill Rural Historic District
Red Maple Swamp Trail,

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 41.819444444444 ° E -69.965555555556 °
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Address

Red Maple Swamp Trail

Red Maple Swamp Trail
02642
Massachusetts, United States
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View from Fort Hill, Eastham MA
View from Fort Hill, Eastham MA
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Nauset Archeological District
Nauset Archeological District

The Nauset Archaeological District (or "Coast Guard Beach Site,19BN374" or "North Salt Pond Site,19BN390") is a National Historic Landmark District in Eastham, Massachusetts. Located within the southern portion of the Cape Cod National Seashore, this area was the location of substantial ancient settlements since at least 4,000 BC.The first written account of this area was by Samuel de Champlain in 1605, in which he described sailing into a bay surrounded by the wigwams of the Nauset tribe (see map, right). The account detailed the settlement's crops (e.g. corn, beans, squash, tobacco), housing (round wigwams covered with thatched reeds), and clothing (woven from grasses, hemp, and animal skins). De Champlain's map also depicts one of their fishing methods, using a conical weir constructed of saplings and grass rope, designed to capture fish swimming from the marsh into a pond. To farm the land, they used stone hoes and fire-hardened wood tools. About 150 people were living at the site around Nauset Harbor, and about 500-600 were living around Stage Harbor to the south in the area of present-day Chatham. Archaeological studies have since shown that these settlements were occupied year-round.After 1620, English colonists from the settlement at Plymouth visited Nauset many times to buy food and trade. In addition to goods for trade, however, the Europeans also unwittingly introduced diseases. Many of them died as a result, and their population declined drastically. In 1639 about half of the English from Plymouth relocated to the Nauset area, settling the town that is now Eastham. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. The area can be visited via the Fort Hill area of the Cape Cod National Seashore, off U. S. Route 6, where the Fort Hill and Red Maple Swamp trails wind from the top of the hill to the marsh and beyond.