Been There?

Forever Young

Ask almost anyone about their childhood days at summer camp and they will regale you with tales of adventure, summer friendships, and cheesy camp songs they love to this day. At Sengekontacket Pond in Edgartown it’s no different.

The many alumni of Fern and Feather Natural History Day Camp will tell you that they slept in tents, made fast friends, and looked up to this counselor or another. But they’ll also tell you about the first time they held a snake, and the time they found their first horseshoe crab.

Olivia Hull

Been There?

One Place at a Time: Caroline Tuthill Preserve

When I walked the Caroline Tuthill Preserve earlier this year, what I noticed first was the aroma of the pitch pine forest, a smell that brought me back to my childhood when I used to visit my aunt and uncle who had a home very close to this sanctuary in Edgartown. The trails are narrow with soft sand, and are mostly covered by a blanket of pine needles,all of which makes for a pleasant floor to walk on.

Albert O. Fischer

Been There?

One Place at a Time: Menemsha Hills Reservation

I first explored Menemsha Hills more than fifty years ago, when the trails we followed were mostly made by cattle and deer. In the early 1940s, my father, with the aid of friends, had stacked a pile of boulders on the summit of Prospect Hill. His goal was to make the top of the pile roughly three feet higher than the 311-foot Peaked Hill, which is the Island’s highest point. I still to this day climb on top of that pile of boulders just to get the feeling of knowing that nobody is standing higher than me on the Vineyard.

Albert O. Fischer

People, Been There?

Cultural Outpost

Shops and eateries atop the Gay Head Cliffs have been drawing tourists and Vineyarders alike for more than a hundred years. Run by Wampanoags, the shops are part of the tribal culture in Aquinnah.

Richard C. Skidmore