Sagamore Beach is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

Bourne, Massachusetts Bourne ( ) is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 20,452 at the 2020 census. For geographic and demographic information on specific parts of the town of Bourne, please see the articles on Bourne (CDP), ...

, fronting

Cape Cod Bay A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. T ...

and the east end of the

Cape Cod Canal The Cape Cod Canal is an artificial waterway in the U.S. state of Massachusetts connecting Cape Cod Bay in the north to Buzzards Bay in the south, and is part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. The approximately canal traverses the neck ...

. It occupies the northern half of the Sagamore

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, suc ...

. Along with

Buzzards Bay Buzzards Bay is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is approximately 28 miles (45 kilometers) long by 8 miles (12 kilometers) wide. It is a popular destination for fishing, boating, and tourism. Sinc ...

and Bournedale, it is one of the three communities in Barnstable County north of the

. Sagamore Beach is primarily a residential area with a small commercial district near the

Sagamore Bridge The Sagamore Bridge in Sagamore, Massachusetts carries Route 6 and the Claire Saltonstall Bikeway across the Cape Cod Canal, connecting Cape Cod with the mainland of Massachusetts. It is the more northeastern of two automobile canal crossings, ...

and

Massachusetts Route 3A Route 3A is a state highway in eastern Massachusetts, which parallels Route 3 and U.S. Route 3 from Cedarville in southern Plymouth to Tyngsborough at the New Hampshire state line. Route 3A has two major posted segments, separated by a length ...

. Sagamore Beach also adjoins

Scusset Beach State Reservation Scusset Beach State Reservation is a state-operated, public recreation area located in the town of Sandwich in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, at the east end of the Cape Cod Canal on land formerly part of Sagamore Hill Military Reservation. I ...

. Recent development in the 2000s included a new post office, fire station, and several subdivisions.

History

In 1620, when the ''

Mayflower ''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, ...

'' arrived in

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to ...

just north of Sagamore Beach, there were roughly 30 Native American tribes in southeastern Massachusetts. The

Wampanoag The Wampanoag , also rendered Wôpanâak, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands based in southeastern Massachusetts and historically parts of eastern Rhode Island,Salwen, "Indians of Southern New England and Long Island," p. ...

people were the principal tribe of this area. A heavily used trail crossed the area, which the

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

used to reach the eastern reaches of

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

. The trail, later widened by European settlers, became the main artery to Cape Cod. What is now

Massachusetts Route 6A Massachusetts Route 6A is the state road for two sections formerly known as U.S. Route 6 (US 6) on Cape Cod. Most of Route 6A is also known as the Old King's Highway. Combining the 2 major sections (and a "silent" concurrency with US ...

roughly follows that trail. The names of many streets and roads in Sagamore Beach reflect the indigenous peoples of the area, including Tecumseh, Siasconset, Sachem, Scusset, Manomet, Indian Trail, Indian Hill and Fox Run. '' Sagamore'' and ''

sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Al ...

'' are Native American titles. Although initially a village,

Sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

was divided to create the town of Bourne in 1884. The dredging for the Cape Cod Canal had already begun and Sagamore Beach became the Village of Bourne. Although the area was settled by Europeans as early as 1637, the population greatly increased in 1905 when the Christian Endeavor Society founded a summer colony here. Victorian homes built on the bluffs in that era are still present on the shoreline. The Sagamore Beach Colony Club, established in 1909, continues as a community resource today.

References

{{authority control Bourne, Massachusetts Populated coastal places in Massachusetts Villages in Barnstable County, Massachusetts Villages in Massachusetts

History

See also

References