Top 10 Interesting Facts about Martha’s Vineyard

Photo by Aubrey Odom-Mabey on Unsplash

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Martha’s Vineyard

Martha’s Vineyard, an island of glacial origin off the southeastern coast of Massachusetts, U.S., 4 miles (6 km) across Vineyard Sound from the mainland (Cape Cod).

It accounts for most of the territory and population of Dukes county, Massachusetts.

The island is some 20 miles (32 km) long and 2–10 miles (3–16 km) wide and rises 311 feet (95 metres) above sea level at its highest point.

Its coastline is characterized by numerous inlets and ponds sealed by sand spits from the sea.

It was probably sighted by many early navigators but was first recorded in 1602 by Bartholomew Gosnold and Gabriel Archer; the two explorers named it for its many vines.

Purchased by Thomas Mayhew in 1641 and settled the following year, it was considered part of New York but was ceded in 1692 to Massachusetts.

In 1695 it was incorporated into Dukes County (along with the Elizabeth Islands -west, Chappaquiddick Island (east and the island called Nomans Land (or No Man’s Land southwest) 

Here are top 10 interesting facts about Martha’s Vineyard.

1. Martha’s Vineyard Total Population Lives in 6 Towns

Image by User: (WT-shared) OldPine at wts wikivoyage from Wikimedia

Today, the year-round population of 15,000 lives in six towns.

From east to west they are: Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury (Vineyard Haven), West Tisbury, Chilmark and Aquinnah (formerly Gay Head).

In the summer there can be as much as 200,000 people on the Island. For demographic information, please visit Martha’s Vineyard Commission’s website.

2. Martha’s Vineyard Island was the Land of  Native Indians

Image by dlewisnash from Pixabay

Martha’s Vineyard is an island south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The indigenous Wampanoag Indians called it Noepe, which meant “land amid the streams.”

In a reference to the two distinct and often conflicting tidal currents, the native people saw at work around the Island. 

The first people on Martha’s Vineyard were Indians of the Wampanoag tribe and Wampanoags still make up a large part of the town of Aquinnah, also known as Gay Head.

3. There are no Vineyards on the Island

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In spite of the name, there are actually no vineyards on Martha’s Vineyard. Bartholomew Gosnold, a British sailor, named the island after his daughter Martha, and the vine-like growth found along the coast.

Sorry to disappoint any wine lovers. But according to the Chamber of Commerce, you can enjoy a number of fantastic micro-breweries on the island!

British explorer Bartholomew Gosnold crossed the Atlantic in 1602 and landed at a place he called Cape Cod because of the fish in the vicinity.

He would name a nearby island Martha’s Vineyard after his daughter.

Bartholomew Gosnold, then built the first colonial settlement in New England on Cuttyhunk, a small island just across Vineyard Sound.

Gosnold crossed the sound to visit the Vineyard many times during the single summer season he remained in the New World. 

4. Martha’s Vineyard Gained from World War II

World War II shot the Vineyard forward into modern times. Servicemen from all around the country were stationed on the Vineyard during the war, many of them at an air base built quickly in the center of the Island (now the county’s airport)

It is here where they learned aerial gunnery and how to fly on and off the decks of aircraft carriers.

They went home to their families after the war and spoke about a place of astonishing beauty off the coast of southern New England.

Even without the war, the Vineyard couldn’t have escaped attention forever. It lay on one corner of a triangle on whose two other points stood the cities of New York and Boston.

5.  Sign Language was Developed on Martha’s Vineyard Island

Image by Ds13 from Wikimedia

phenomenon in which a disproportionate percentage of the population living on Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the southeastern coast of Massachusetts, U.S., was affected by a hereditary form of deafness.

Vineyard deafness appeared as complete deafness at birth with no associated anomalies. It was caused by a recessively inherited genetic mutation that was traced to Kent County, England.

In the history of deaf culture, Martha’s Vineyard holds a special place. For more than 200 years, the island was home to one of the largest deaf communities in the country. But islanders never treated deafness as a disability.

Instead, they created a sign language that everyone used: hearing and deaf and a predecessor of the modern American Sign Language.

6.   Martha’s Vineyard is Home to the Oldest Flying Horses Carousel

Image by Jared from Wikimedia

Domiciled in the historic town of Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, the Flying Horses Carousel is an Americana relic of late 19th-century entertainment. 

The carousel features 20 hand-painted wooden horses with glass eyes and real horsehair for their tails and manes, as well as four exquisite chariots, all fastened to a rotating platform.

In its original state, the carousel was accompanied by the whistling tones of a steam organ, also known as a calliope.

After eight years of service in New York, the Flying Horses Carousel was relocated to the town of Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard in 1884, where it remains in operation as one of only two surviving carousels fabricated by Dare.

7. Martha’s Vineyard Shockingly High Cost of Living

The cost of living on Martha’s Vineyard is about 60 per cent above the national average, and housing costs are almost double, according to a study carried out by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.

Across all indices, or categories measured, from groceries to health care to transport and utilities, the Island was far more expensive than the national average.

The standout figure was housing, which scored 196, or 96 per cent above the average.

8. Martha’s Vineyard has Ample Shoreline

Image by D_Theodora from Pixabay

The island boasts 124.6 miles of shoreline. Depending on what side of the island you’re on, some beaches are perfect for saltwater fishing.

Some are ideal for surfers in search of big waves. And some are great for a family day of sun and fun at the beach!

There ain’t a lot of development on Martha’s Vineyard because about one-third of the land on the island is protected.

The beaches and hiking trails remain unspoiled!

9. Presidents Can’t Resist Martha’s Vineyard

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama Hiking in Martha’s Vineyard Image Courtesy B Obama Library from Wikimedia

Many U.S. presidents have vacationed on Martha’s Vineyard while they were in office: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Ulysses S. Grant. Other notable visitors include Hillary Clinton and Walter Cronkite.

Former President Obama and his family are permanent homeowners on Martha’s Vineyard, after completing the purchase this week of a large home in the coastal perimeter of Edgartown.

Vice President Kamala Harris also had her dose of Vineyard vacation in 2009 and even stopped for a television interview on her way to catch a flight to New York City.

In 1993, President Clinton and his family arrived on Martha’s Vineyard for a 10-day summer vacation on the Island, the most extended stay here of any sitting president in history.

The President, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and daughter Chelsea, along with an accompanying entourage of White House staff, landed at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport to an enormous crowd of cheering, clapping, singing Island people.

It was a poignant and historic moment for the Vineyard.

In 1980, Former President Richard M. Nixon was a traffic stopper on lower Main street in Edgartown Saturday morning.

10. Gingerbread Houses

Image by m01229 from Wikimedia

Make a point to visit the famous gingerbread cottages in Oak Bluffs, there are actually 330 of them!

In the summer of 1835, a small knot of Edgartonians left the town and all its comforts behind and set sail for a northern headland of the Vineyard, about five miles away.

For a week they held a revival camp meeting there. The event was so invigorating to the spirit that they returned the next year.

Soon a few mainlanders joined them.

And some of them fell in love with the beauty of the land and water, and the healthful saltiness of the air. They too began to come back year after year.

Eventually, these worshippers built elaborately decorated homes where their tents once stood. These became summer cottages in the Victorian “gingerbread” style. 

Martha’s Vineyard feels like a tucked-away, secret getaway and nature lover’s paradise. It’s a favourite vacation retreat for many well-known—and not so well-known—tourists.