The Cape Cod Times recently did a feature of the top stories of 2012 – and we felt that there were a couple of big news items left out locally. Â So here is my rundown of the top news events on Cape Cod in 2012:
- Cape Cod saw its first wild bear since colonial times – and had its first great white shark attack on a human in 76 years. Wildlife experts captured the bear and delivered him to western Massachusetts (where he later attempts a return to Cape Cod) with this to say: “The Cape is not the place for bears. There are too many roads and too many people in a relatively confined area that means too many opportunities for bears to get into trouble.” That seems odd – we have a lot of humans getting into trouble on Cape Cod, especially in the summer, but for some reason we never send them to Western Massachusetts. One thing not mentioned in the Cape Cod Times article which I found to be newsworthy is that both the bear and the shark set up Twitter and Facebook accounts. So not only is it historic that these species are back in town, they are also on social media for the first time. The shark has a few identities – most popular I believe is @ChathamShark (others include @capewhiteshark, @sharkoncapecod)Â and the bear can be found at @BearSwimmer or @capecodbear. Combined these guys have a couple thousand followers. Â In his top stories of 2012 article Doug Fraser does mention that both shark and bear were indeed internet celebrities: “a recent search produced more than 200,000 hits for the Cape Cod Bear, 61,200 for the Cape Cod shark attack and 29,200 for Taylor Swift on Cape Cod.”
- Almost one hundred trees (in just 2 towns) were taken down along route 6A in 2012. To those of you who never got the chance to see scenic route 6A in Barnstable or Yarmouth Port before 2013, you missed some magnificent ancient trees. The sight of all the stumps is a sad eyesore. Perhaps a slower speed limit (and enforcement of it) on 6A would have done the trick instead of destroying both the beauty and the habitat these trees have provided for the past several decades. Apparently regulations in place keeping real estate on the route “historic” had no impact on those very old trees. I am sure someone somewhere will call this “progress”.
- Elliot “Lee” Childs passed away unexpectedly at age 65 in 2012. One of Cape Cod’s most famous musicians, Lee played tenor and soprano saxophone and clarinet with such luminaries as Kurt Wenzel, Marie Marcus, Lou Columbo, Buddy Hackett, Billy Butterfield and Earl “Fatha” Hines. He brought an appreciation of bebop, the blues and Dixieland jazz to brand new audiences of people both young and old. We will miss him dearly. To us, Lee provided a perfect accompaniment to the Cape Cod landscape.
These were certainly some noteworthy events of the past year. The whole bear saga was pretty entertaining.
And yes it has been sad to see so many Historic trees removed along 6A. i know that some of them where pretty far along with decay but it is still disheartening, especially when some could have been preserved by other means.
Thanks for your comment. You would definitely be more knowledgable about the trees being sick or dying, being a tree expert. But yes I agree I wish they had taken more care and maybe even planted some to replace them.