Long Point is a peninsula located in Provincetown, Massachusetts, at the extreme tip of Cape Cod, as it curls back in on itself to create Provincetown Harbor. The Long Point Light was built on this point in 1827. The lighthouse once shared this peninsula with a settlement of fishermen that came to be known as Long Point, Massachusetts. This Provincetown village grew and thrived from 1818 until the late 1850s. When the settlers decided to leave Long Point, they took most of their houses with them – about 30 structures in all – by floating them across the harbor.
During the American Civil War, the military established a defensive coastal artillery post and garrison at this location. The Long Point Battery came to be known as "Fort Useless" and "Fort Ridiculous" among the local residents.
Today, nothing remains of the village of Long Point, except for the lighthouse and an earthen mound, the last remnant from the earlier military post.
Early history
A fisherman named John Atwood built the first house on Long Point in 1818. He was followed by Prince Freeman, and next by Eldridge Smith. Others soon followed in increasing numbers, and in 1822, Prince Freeman, Jr. became the first child born on "The Point", as it was called by the locals.
The initial lure that attracted so many fishermen to this area was its proximity to prime fishing grounds, and the amount of fish that could be caught from the shore. Using sweep seines (that were hand-knit by their wives), fishermen caught an abundance of mackerel, shad and bass from shore. There are reports of up to seventy-five barrels of white shad caught in one haul, fetching $16 per barrel – accounting for inflation, that single haul netted roughly $ in today's dollars.
By an act of Congress on May 18, 1826, the government earmarked $2,500 (roughly $ today) to acquire four acres at the extreme tip of the point, and to construct a lighthouse, which was completed in 1827. By 1830, the lighthouse became the site of Long Point's first school, starting with only three children. The Long Point community continued to grow, and by 1846, the Town of Provincetown voted to build a schoolhouse on Long Point. By then, the village was home to 38 fishing families, with nearly 200 adults and 60 children. In describing the experience of living on Long Point in the early 1800s, one author wrote:
The village had its own post office, a bakery, boat landings for 20 cod-fishing vessels, breakwaters, and several saltworks with nine windmills that were used to pump seawater into about of drying pans. With low costs and an endless supply of raw materials, the collection of sea salt was extremely profitable in the first part of the 19th century. Not only was salt shipped out for domestic consumption, but it was also used to supply the fishing industry, which dried and salted the catch to preserve the fish for shipment. The annual output of the saltworks on Long Point reached "five to six hundred hogsheads", or , "of extra quality salt." That represented just under 10% of Provincetown's total annual salt production of .
Challenges
Production of salt did not retain its lucrative luster for long, however, for downward price pressures had hit that industry from several angles. For one, the completion of the Erie Canal in 1830 meant a sharp increase in competition from companies that were mining massive salt deposits in Syracuse, New York. Local competition had increased as well – by 1837, Provincetown had 78 saltworks, and the selling price had fallen from a high of eight dollars per bushel at the turn of the nineteenth century, down to only one dollar. Around that same time, demand for salt-cured fish began to decline, yielding to a growing consumer preference for ice harvesting and storage. John Atwood Jr., the son of Long Point's founder, boasted that "In 1848 I brought the first mackerel ever received on ice to Boston. It was August. I took them in the sloop smack American Eagle." He later pioneered the use of a jib topsail to shorten his time-to-market, so as to meet the growing appetite for fresh-caught fish.
Living on Long Point presented its own share of challenges as well. The geography of Provincetown as a whole made for an isolating existence throughout most of its history, as the town was essentially cut off, not just from the mainland, but in many ways, even from neighboring towns on Cape Cod. The town was surrounded by water in every direction: Atlantic Ocean, to the north Massachusetts Bay to the northwest Cape Cod Bay to the west and southwest Provincetown Harbor to the south and southeast East Harbor and a salt marsh to the east