Martha’s Vineyard (MV) is divided into three main cities to go with it’s three corners. This triangular, tri-happy, snow-globe island can be driven across in entirety (from end to end) in about forty-five minutes. Like all good islands it’s wending coastline offers countless overlooks for the nature starved viewer, providing entrancing contentment with it’s bumbling swells.
I adore beach towns as much as the next person, in fact, I might yet act upon my fantasy of living by the ocean just so I can take a dip at least four times a day… For now however, I have contented myself with exploring MV in the depth of winter when the tourists and summer renters had already fled South with the dwindling Monarchs. I stayed Up-Island. Apparently, even as a visitor I am not a Down-Islander.
Prior to my arrival MV conjured up images of pastel polo shirts with small whale insignia’s on the breast and a nostalgic jumble of tumultuous sea water associated with a prime time news anchor’s sensationless voice announcing the death of John F. Kennedy in a plane crash. If you had asked my imagination to distinguish differences between Cape Code and Martha’s Vineyard prior to this trip, P-town aside I would have simply asked: What more is there to discover about the locals once one has explored the chintzy-souvenir shops, pier-side breweries and foaming-sea art galleries?
When disembarking from the Steamship Authority Ferry into Vineyard Haven (Down-Island) within easy walking distance you will find the island staples such as Leslie’s Pharmacy and Mocha Moe’s (a necessity for the local teens) on Main Street as well as some chimerically touristy spots: Mad Martha’s for Ice Cream and Bunch of Grapes bookstore. If you want really spend some time Down-Island however, you will want to hop over to Oak Bluffs for it is a “damp-town”, meaning you can at least purchase a beer or glass of wine with your lunch. Oak Bluffs is conveniently located about 5 miles from the famed beached of Nantucket Sound.
If you are traversing the island by bus it is possible to see the entire island in one day. On the bus circuit, Edgartown would be the next scheduled stop after Oak Bluffs. As the first established colonial port on MV, today it is a well preserved town with it’s ancient whaling houses, local museums and of course it’s maintenance of the slow-running ferry to the island of Chappaquiddick AKA Chappy for short. Home to many musical events and scene-gatherings for MV the small island sports a must visit site, Slip Away Farm, an all organic farm run by a young local and her friends. Trending on the island are start-up organic farms (and potentially some new recycling and composting programs as well I hear). This trend seems to be due in part at least to the location itself with the boosted cost of imports (expect at least a $3 mark-up on your purchases) as well as the affluence of the area in general. This allows not only for profitable Farmer’s Markets and Veg- Stands, but ensures that local restaurants and groceries are keen to purchase locally too.
In a new and more exciting movement composting, as afore mentioned, seems to be growing in popularity. On the island is far more economical to compost locally than to and have manure imported. Many of the local landscapers (a profitable job on-island, particularly for the summer labor-force) have started utilizing on-island organic waste specifically. Additionally, I was surprised to learn that trash and recycling services are only provided on-location at a fairly steep cost. Many locals prefer to carry their own waste to the dump and pay per bag rather than dealing with monthly service fees.
I would be remiss if I failed to note that a good place for the Local Scene is located at the dump itself, in The Dumptique specifically. A non-profit, volunteer based shop, it is naught but a small hut where people can drop off items they no longer want which are then refurbished or simply taken as is by someone new, items are re-purposed with vigor. A friend I was visiting harbored some amazing vintage and D.I.Y. finds from her Dumptique scavenging. Alas, it was too cold during my visit for me to go look around (run entirely by volunteers, they are only open if it is above 32 degrees), it’s just another incentive to go back…
When departing Edgartown your final stops on island should commence in the final corner of up-island MV in Tisbury, particularly West Tisbury. Catch a few gawks at Ally’s General Store, a historical site which has been refinished and re-purposed so many times that they now sell everything you can imagine and quite a few things you cannot… Of the things you cannot imagine I recommend picking up a local “Not Your Sugar Mommas” all raw superfood chocolate and caramel bar. Handmade by “Helen” or whomever the custom label helpfully notates, though expensive (close to $7/bar) these chocolates diffuse so aerially that your taste buds protest the end of each bite even before your brain has quite comprehended the finite existence of such perfection the food world. It should be noted that Ally’s can also provide practical things like subs and coffee; Thus it’s station within the local community as the hang-out spot for much of the labor force of West Tisbury.
You would do well to make one more stop in West Tisbury at the Scottish Bake House (perhaps in between socializing at the local post office and library). With a local artist’s show on it’s walls this is the closest you will come to a hipter cafe on-island. (Heaven forbid there not be an artsy/artisanal cafe in any small-town America!) Scottish Bake House is the place to learn about everything that is worth anything obviously. It is where you will find out what key events are happening on-island and will probably improve your mood and your social life with it’s endearments to normality. (For more information about the local talent the island does subsume check out: Peg House and Kendyll Gage-Ripa‘s art they are some of the people you will find are apart of this Local Scene Spot.)
At Chilmark, another tri-happy area of this island, with three main roads (North, South and Middle road) the main bar of Chilmark suggests that you BYOB and while they have great music some evenings I suggest that you continue your drive past the town hall on South Road and on into Aquinnah (AKA Gay Head). You can aim for the nude beach which lies at the bottom of the Aquinnah cliffs or perhaps you might want to simply see the cliffs themselves. It would also be respectful to take time to learn about the Wampanoang People of Gay Head while there as you will pass the reservation and are on their land when driving through. The word “Wampanoang” literally means “People of the Dawn” they have been on this land since before the first settlers brought the 7 – day disease among other things to the tribe in the 17th century. Today the Wampanoang are working on an ambitious project to revive their native tongue, as the last native Wampanoang speaker died almost 100 years ago.
The surface of the MV belies it’s hidden wonders in the still of winter. Though bundled up and warmed with inventive hot-toddies, I found myself quakingly cold many times throughout my stay as I hunched, determined, willing my eyes to pick out the slender shape of an arrowhead or perhaps mastodon tooth from the receding cliff line near Quansoo Beach . My friend and guide (who’s name shall remain anonymous for reasons having to do with what I suspect to be grey-area legal land rights), an accomplished arrowheader, while not having any luck while I was in tow either (*go figure*) was never deterred.
Not for the impatient, the fine art of arrowheading entails false alarms whenever one happens across an elongated rock. Often when a novice, like me, one can find something and you are certain it has to be something important due to the grooved edges and seemingly carved out bottom! – Then just as you go to cry out that you’ve found one – success and validation at last- The bit of rock crumbles in your hand, having been a mere silt composite formed like everything else around via the constant shifting overturn that is the tides and stones of the area. So you sigh and drop the handful of dust you are now cradling, allowing that course sand to run through your fingers, staining them a light red, the key color of MV earth. The art of Arrowheading is no different from adventuring and learning. It it not for feint of heart.
intrepid trekking 