Historic Cultural Land Use Study of Lower Cape Cod, A Study of the Historical Archeology and History of the Cape Cod National Seashore and the Surrounding Region.

The National Park Service began a multi-year National Archeological Survey Initiative (NASI) designed to locate, assess, and evaluate the archeological resources in all park areas. To do this for a large geographical area with a complex land-use history requires an interdisciplinary study
of land use.

Managers of the former North Atlantic Region, NPS, decided to undertake a cultural land-use study of Cape Cod National Seashore. This was a pilot project designed to establish a framework for explaining the presence and form of historic archeological resources. Cape Cod NS was selected because of its many varied and dispersed archeological resources. After the study began, the North Atlantic Region was combined with the Mid-Atlantic Region to create the Northeast Region. The study will permit the significance of individual resources to be evaluated for purposes of determining National Register eligibility. Previously, the Massachusetts Historical Commission conducted a regional reconnaissance-level survey of Cape Cod and the Islands (Bradley 1987), providing broad historical themes for the region. Surveys of the history of the Lower Cape and historic resources have been prepared by Clemensen (1979) and Rockmore (1979). The NPS conducted a survey of historic structures in the seashore (Pfeiffer 1987), and also an archeological survey that addressed historic land use but was concentrated on prehistoric sites (McManamon 1984).

The project consisted of four segments: (1) a literature search, assessment, and description of methodology; (2) an outline ofhistoric contexts and associated resources; (3) case studies, or archeological reconnaissance surveys; and ( 4) a cultural land use study. This report represents this fourth portion of the project.