There are 15 towns on Cape Cod and each one has its own story. Some of them are well known – some not so much. Here are 15 fascinating facts – one for each town on the Cape – that might make you see this sandbar a little bit differently:
Wellfleet Is Bananas
Picture 6 of 15
In 1870, Captain Lorenzo Baker of Wellfleet brought a crew down to Venezuela for a mining project, where he sampled his first banana. Sensing a market, he brought a few ripe ones back in his cargo – but by the time he got home, they were spoiled. He went back to the tropics, picked some green bananas, and brought them to the Cape just ripe. For 10 more years, he set to work developing the Boston Fruit Company, the predecessor of United Fruit, which is still in existence.
When I was a kid in Hyannis, helping work at a gas station behind my house, a guy pulled up to the pump and wanted some gas. He handed me a “can of OIL” that he said needed to go in the gas tank, before the gas. I NEVER heard of such a thing!. I opened the can, poured the oil in then put the amount of gas he told me to. I asked AL (the proprietor) what that was about. He told me it was a Foreign car, called a SAAB, and it used oil with the gas.
I owned one of those old Saabs with the 3 cylinder 2 stroke engine. Got great milage but not a lot of power and always started on cold Cape Cod mornings. Mine was a little blue station wagon and I had to replace the transaxle (transmission) 3 times. I gor pretty good at changing it out in a few hours. The little engine was so small I was able to just pull it out of the engine bay and set it on the floor. The body pan finally rusted out.
What about Marstons Mills !
WHERE IS YARMOUTH?!?!
Judging from the dates of the comments, this feature first was published ca 2016 — you’ve had 7 YEARS to add a unique fact about YARMOUTH! Get with your own program!