Cape Cod

When Truro, the second most northerly town on Cape Cod, was first settled as Pamet 1646, it was part of the larger area then called Nauset. Pamet's name was changed to Truro (after a Cornish town it was said to resemble) when it was incorporated as a separate town in 1709. Truro developed a whaling fleet based at Pamet River Harbor, which comprised nine sloops by the early 1800s. In its early years, mariners knew Pamet as Dangerfield because of the frequent wrecks off its shores.

The back or east side of Cape Cod I was as dangerous to shipping in the age of sail as was Cape Hatteras. In 1798 the Cape Cod Light Station, at Highland, was established to warn ships of the Cape and to mark the route to Boston. Ten years later Cape Cod's second light station at Chatam was constructed. This station, about 23 miles south of the Cape Cod lighthouse, was a dual tower station. Each tower displayed a fixed white light, distinguishing this lighthouse from the Cape Cod light with its single white beam.