From the December 8, 2008 issue of The Cape Cod Times
History lives in classic rock
By Robin Lord, rlord@capecodonline.com
Paul Blackmore Photo caption: Professional stone worker Scott Wall of Harwich, above, cleans dirt and debris from the marker found beside Mill Pond behind Anthony's Cummaquid Inn on Route 6A. The letters B and Y are believed to be the original boundary markers set down in the early 17th century.
CUMMAQUID - Michael Watson knew his family's restaurant property straddled the Yarmouth-Barnstable town line. But he had no idea it might be playing host to an ancient Cape Cod landmark.
Last week, members of a group investigating how the Pilgrims established the boundaries of the first Cape Cod towns found a large, flat granite boulder nestled in the marsh mud behind Anthony's Cummaquid Inn.
Engraved on the top of the rock are the letters Y and B, with a small x in the middle.
Chatham historian Michael Farber and Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School teacher Daniella Garran believe the boulder may have been etched by Pilgrims in the early 17th century to mark the Yarmouth-Barnstable boundary line.
If so, the rock would be another important piece in the Cornerstone Project puzzle.
Project members are working off a theory put forth by H. Morse Payne, a retired architect and historian, and a descendant of the first Yarmouth settlers. In 1985, he wrote about the Pilgrims' discovery that Cape Cod's geographical configuration represented a complete round compass. Payne postulated that they divided the Cape's "compass" by establishing a north-south line from Quivett Creek in Dennis to Wood End in Provincetown, bisected by an east-west line from the Truro-Wellfleet line to Manomet Point in Plymouth.
Working from the center point in Cape Cod Bay, where the lines crossed, Payne believes the Pilgrims radiated the boundary lines out to establish the boundaries of the first four towns: Sandwich, Barnstable, Yarmouth and Nauset.
Farber said he believes the Cummaquid rock may date back to 1641, when Pilgrims Edward Winslow, Miles Standish and Edmund Freeman were sent to Yarmouth by Gov. William Bradford to settle the bounds of Yarmouth and Barnstable.
Farber knew that Yarmouth town legend told of an ancient boundary marker beside Mill Pond in Cummaquid. Last week, he and his assistant, Justin Lojko, received permission from Watson to explore the property. Lojko, who was walking along the edge of the pond, had almost given up, when he realized he was standing on a large flat rock. When he scratched away the half-inch or so of mud, he saw what looked to be some engravings, he said. The graceful letters were revealed fully when he and Farber removed the mud and flushed the surface with pond water.
"You have a treasure trove here," Farber told Watson on Friday, as he led a group of about a dozen people down an embankment to the marsh behind the restaurant. Walking to the marker rock, it was evident why it had remained hidden for so many years. Uneven terrain, slippery rocks and clusters of brambles and marsh grass surround it.
Lighthouse Charter School student Joey Benedict voiced the general reaction when the group peered through the reeds at the engraved rock.
"Wow," he whispered, as he moved forward for a closer look.
The eighth-grader has been part of the Cornerstone Project since last spring, when Garran and fellow teacher Paul Niles led a seminar at the school. The seminar continued this fall, and will start up again next spring.
The Cummaquid rock is the second etched boulder the students have found with Farber's assistance. Last spring, they located a huge boulder in Town Cove in Orleans that has a large X dug into it. They believe it is a boundary marker for the Orleans-Eastham line.
Some of the early settlers were trained surveyors, Farber said. They used an English form of surveying, which sets boundaries by radiating out from a center point in a pie-slice configuration. They always worked off magnetic north, which is determined by molten iron in the Earth and orients all compasses.
Farber said he believes the Cummaquid rock lies along the line radiating out from the center point in the bay and crosses the north side at Anthony's Cummaquid Inn and the south side at Hyannis Harbor.
The boundary rock in Hyannis Harbor already has been found, Farber said. The line connecting the two rocks across Cape Cod "may be the first coordinate in the whole New World," he said.
Expert stone carver Scott Wall of Harwich on Friday said the letters on the Cummaquid rock were beautifully crafted.
"They were done by a skilled carver," he said, as he delicately brushed away dirt and sand from the indentations in the gray granite. It is likely early surveyors would have brought a stone carver with them, he said. "They took a lot of trouble to make this set of letters."