The Cape Coddah
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☀️ Eight New Farms in the Bay

☀️ Eight New Farms in the Bay

Plus: Fine dining in an old garage

Cape Coddah
August 21, 2026

Good morning Cape Cod. On this day back in 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre by a museum employee named Vincenzo Peruggia. It wasn't recovered for two full years, when he tried to sell it in Italy. Peruggia served just eight months for the crime of the century. Meanwhile, we're all just trying to figure out if we returned our library books on time.

In this week’s Cape Coddah:

Unknown owners on Outer Cape
Long night on Wellfleet Bay
Events and live music

Let’s get to it.

🚧 A Neighborhood Fades Away

Here's the human side of the new Sagamore Bridge project. In the small Round Hill neighborhood off Sandwich Road, 13 homes have been taken by the state through eminent domain to make way for the new span. Most sit boarded up now, with weeds overtaking yards that were tidy just months ago.

David Collins, an 83-year-old Vietnam vet who's lived there since 1962, describes the scene bluntly: like the slums of Detroit. His own house isn't being taken, but he almost wishes it were, worried it'll lose value once construction starts across the street.

The half-dozen remaining families are frustrated and short on answers. They've been told work will run 12 hours a day with no fence to shield it. Heavy construction is expected to ramp up by spring 2028. Read more»

🦪 Eight New Farms in the Bay

Brewster's shellfish scene is about to grow. The select board voted unanimously on August 10 to support eight new aquaculture leases along Cape Cod Bay.

The half-acre sites are split between two spots: four off Breakwater Beach and four off Spruce Hill, adding up to four acres of town-owned sand set aside for local shellfish farmers. Beyond the oysters and clams, the farming brings ecological perks too, filtering the water and pulling out nitrogen.

Some of these applicants have been waiting a long time. One official said a few have been on the list for more than 15 years, with about a dozen people still waiting.

Next up, the state comes down to survey the sites for existing shellfish and eelgrass. If they're clear, the three-year leases move forward. Read more»

This newsletter is free to read, always will be, and it's just me behind the scenes. Reading every local story, writing every summary, hitting send every Friday.

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Thank you for your support!
~Kari

❓ Owner Unknown

Across Truro, Provincetown, and Wellfleet, there are 20 properties stuck in a kind of real estate limbo, all vacant lots whose owners are simply listed as "unknown."

The reason? Old deeds. We're talking handwritten documents from the 1800s and early 1900s that describe boundaries using things like a stake, a stone, and a swamp near the Pamet River. Over time, as land changed hands, ownership got lost in translation.

Most of these lots are undevelopable wetlands nobody wants, and together they cost the three towns just $3,802 in lost taxes last year. Clearing a single title can run $5,000 in legal work, so towns rarely bother chasing them.

One Wellfleet woman's been paying taxes on a neighboring parcel for 25 years, hoping it'll become hers. Officials say it doesn't quite work that way. Read more»

📸 @capeimagesbyamie |📍Race Point Beach

Tag @thecapecoddah to get your photos in the Coddah!

🚣 A Long Night on Wellfleet Bay

Beth McCullough-Kerner recalls the summer of 1978, when at 16 she and three friends set out from Wellfleet in a rickety 15-foot wooden boat to see the "Target Ship," the roughly 420-foot rusted hulk the Navy had spent decades using for bombing practice off Eastham.

She'd grown up watching those night bombing runs light up the horizon and wanted to see the wreck up close. They made it out there fine. Getting home was the problem. The engine died, and the little boat drifted through the night, cold and dark, with one oar, no radio, no lights, and two moldy life jackets.

Half the town kept vigil on the deck of her family's Harbour Inne until the Coast Guard found the kids around 4 a.m. She later got a $1,500 fine, which vanished after she wrote back pleading poverty. Read more»

SPONSORED BY:
CAPE PINES PHOTOGRAPHY

Have you ever wondered why some places stay with you long after you've left?

Cape Cod has a way of doing that. Some people choose to keep that feeling close through photography, bringing a little piece of the Cape home with them.

“We purchased one of Gary's prints, and it now hangs in our living room as a daily reminder to slow down and take time to reflect.”
-J. Allen, Cold Spring, New York

Want to know how others are keeping the Cape close?

It took first responders 30 minutes to free an 18-year-old who became buried up to his chest in a collapsing sand hole at Sandwich's Scusset Beach on Tuesday, a rescue that ended with him flown to a Rhode Island hospital in stable condition.

A new report ranked the Cape Cod National Seashore and Marconi Beach as the second least theft-prone beach in the entire country, earning an A+ safety grade for its low rates of property crime.

Chatham is one of 25 national finalists vying to be crowned Hallmark Channel's "Merriest Christmas Town in America," a title that comes with the chance to be featured in an original Hallmark movie.

Starting in mid-September, the USDA will begin dropping packets from helicopters over Cape Cod, and they're rabies vaccine baits for raccoons, part of an annual effort that will distribute 75,000 of them across parts of Massachusetts.

🍽️ Fine Dining in an Old Garage

Run by married couple Charlotte and Mick Formichella, who came home after years in Portland, Oregon, Lune in Dennis Port started as a pop-up before opening in 2024 inside a former gas station. Picture sage green walls, checkered floors, garage doors still in place, and a small open kitchen turning out inventive tasting menus.

The food leans hard on local seafood and seasonal produce, from Brewster oysters to foie gras tarte to confit halibut, with excellent house sourdough and cultured butter throughout. The menu changes constantly with what's fresh. Your check even arrives tucked in a vintage Julia Child cookbook.

Named a James Beard semifinalist in 2025, it seats just six at the counter and six tables, so reservations go fast. The Globe's critic called it maybe the Cape's best right now. Read more»

Nantucket's Conservation Commission is warming to a plan by the Sconset Beach Preservation Fund to repair a section of the controversial Sconset Bluff geotube array damaged in alleged vandalism last January.

Irene Wong, a longtime food TV producer turned first-time farm cook, is spending this season as chef in residence at North Tabor Farm in Chilmark, where her heart-shaped biscuits sell out in half an hour.

Nantucket's Select Board voted 3-1 to award four rental car medallions each to two new local companies, Compass Pointe Rentals and Grey Lady Jeeps, hoping to bring more competition to an island market where rental prices run sky-high.

⚖️ Grand Jury Indicts Cotton for Murder

The case against Vineyard babysitter Aimee Cotton has taken a serious turn. A Dukes County grand jury this week indicted her for second degree murder in the death of two-year-old Frank Rodenbaugh, raising the earlier manslaughter charge.

Prosecutors say Cotton left the toddler and another child alone in her SUV for several hours back in March 2025 while she did chores in her home. She found Frank unresponsive, and he died a few days later.

The district attorney's office declined to say what swayed the grand jury to elevate the charge. In Massachusetts, second degree murder can carry a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

Cotton, who previously pleaded not guilty, is set to be arraigned on the new charges October 5. Her trial was already moved to Barnstable. Read more»

👋 Meet: Oakley
🐾 Great Pyrenees
🎂 2 years old
♀︎ Male
Available to adopt at MSCPA-Cape Cod

SATURDAY - AUGUST 22

Craft Festival @ Nauset Middle School | 10 AM
Jerk Food & Fun @ Hyannis Village Green | 10
Garden Tour @ Falmouth Museum on Green | 11
Shriner’s Parade @ Hyannis Main St. | 2 PM
Dog Days of Summer @ CC Beer | 4 PM
Youth Film Festival @ Wellfleet Pres. Hall | 6 PM
P-Town Dance Fest @ Truro Center for Arts | 7

SUNDAY - AUGUST 23

Antique Car Parade @ W. Dennis Beach | 11 AM
Jim Gaffigan @ Cape Melody Tent | 5 PM

Plover Not a Fighter

SUNDAY - AUGUST 23

PanNeubean Steel @ CC Winery | 12 PM
Jeffrey Clayton @ Flying Bridge | 1 PM
Jared Moore @ Love Farms | 1 PM
Wayside Sound @ Shipwrecked | 2 PM
Lee Surrette @ CC Coffee | 3 PM
Neighbor @ Naukabout | 3 PM
Coastal Wreck @ The Woodshed | 4 PM
Birch Swart @ Hooked Bar & Grille | 4 PM
Jim Nosler & Friends @ CC MOA | 4 PM
Sandy Ridge Boys @ Highfield Hall | 4 PM
Uncle John’s Banjo @ Pilot House | 5 PM
Chris Richardson @ Chapin’s Bayside | 5 PM
The Invincible Casuals @ Neptune’s CC | 5 PM
Kathleen Healey @ Oliver’s & Planck’s | 5 PM
The Wildflowers @ Torino | 6 PM
Paul Barton Duo @ Love Farms | 6 PM
David Garden Duo @ Margaritaville | 7 PM
The Samples @ Hog Island | 7 PM
Early Beatles Tribute @ Cult. Cent. CC | 7:30 PM
Spencer Bebon @ The Woodshed | 9:30 PM

_{Nothing in this section is sponsored. We'll let you know when something's sponsored.}

Friday

71 🌡️ 65 | 🌧️ | 💧 96% | 💨 NE 12 mph

Saturday

73 🌡️ 67 | 🌦️ | 💧 84% | 💨 NNW 10 mph

Sunday

77 🌡️ 67 | 🌧️ | 💧 97% | 💨 SE 13 mph

💧🌡️ Water temperature = 71ºF

44 Twine Field Road, Truro
Asking $3.85M
4 🛏️
3.5 🛁
3,352 sqft
0.91 acre lot

_{Nothing in this section is sponsored. We'll always let you know when something's sponsored.}

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