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| Edward Hopper's rendition of the Cape shacks |
There is something about the extreme points on the eastern shore of the United States that draws the liminal. Save for the weather and seasonal climate, there is a lot in common between, say, Key West, Florida and Provincetown, Massachusetts. These are communities that attract artists, writers, low-lifes [that may have been redundant], highly original entrepreneurs, and unusual businesses; the general vibe of creativity and celebration is found everywhere from the high-colored exteriors of the restored homes to the latest culinary creation on the plate in front of you.
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| Duval Street, Key West |
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| Commercial Street, Provincetown |
Drug and alcohol use seems to be rather freely engaged, too. I suppose that follows from both places having once been popular with pirates.
As the artistic class, represented by Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, and Jimmy Buffet [well, why not?] found creative encouragement in free and easy Key West, Provincetown was no different. Even though it is hampered by having distinct seasons, punctuated by a sometimes brutal winter, it still became a haven for those who needed the relaxed solitude [and cheap alcohol] of a liminal community .
While there is nothing quite like the quaint re-purposed fishing shanties of Key West, Provincetown may have something much better, especially for those who found that their art and its creation was more akin to a monastic endeavor than a ceaseless bacchanal.
Since that area of the Massachusetts coast can be treacherous and historically remote, shacks were built in the 19th century on the sand bluffs along the Provincetown and Truro border to house the members of an early incarnation of the U.S. Coast Guard and to serve as shelters for the survivors of shipwrecks. So common were such wrecks that, in 1865, when Henry David Thoreau was hiking the dune trails of Cape Cod, he noted the many wizened men who would comb the beaches looking for the flotsam from recent wrecks, warily regarding an obvious city dandy like Walden Pond's resident.
While the shacks eventually lost their original purpose, as a series of lighthouses would be built to warn mariners of the coastline, they continued to be re-built season after season, often with driftwood found along the beaches, and by the 1920's were offered for sale or lease to those interested in a rustic retreat along the coastline. One of the first to purchase a dune shack was Eugene O'Neill, arguably America's greatest playwright, as a place for solitude and concentration. It was here that he would write "Anna Christie" and "The Hairy Ape".
As O'Neill was respected and connected in the creative world, others would hear of the shacks and begin their pilgrimage, to greater or lesser [mostly lesser] effect, to the dunes over the next decades. Even though the shacks had no electricity or running water and the heat, as even summer evenings on the Cape can get cool, was supplied by meager fireplaces, poets, writers, and artists such as e.e. cummings, Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, and Jackson Pollock, would find their way to those shacks in that liminal zone on the tip of Cape Cod and, with the pilgrimage, some inspiration.
To get a flavor of shack life in the 1920's, Henry Beston's The Outermost House is still in print and contains one of the more important meditations on waves and water in the chapter entitled "The Headlong Wave". It's worth reading for anyone who enjoys that part of the coastline, or who happens to be an elderly surfer.
Nineteen of the shacks still stand, all but one now owned by the U.S. government [naturally]. One may enter a lottery, however, to earn a chance to reside in one of the shacks for a period of time, and there is a program that encourages their continued use by artists.
Only one tour company owns the rights to carry tourists through the shack zone, which is why it's a bit expensive and offers some questionable historical facts, but it's worth it if one is interested in this side show in American arts. Certainly, any visit to the outer reaches of Cape Cod should include at least a passing glance at those humble structures that represent so much of Eastern maritime history and the lively arts of the American Century.
