At 3:45 am on Friday, Jan. 18, 1884, the 275-foot steamer City of Columbus, bound for Savannah from Boston, struck Devil’s Bridge off Gay Head, and sank beside the treacherous rocks. Despite the heroic labors of local residents mostly Wampanoag fishermen willing to brave the bitter, dangerous winter surf more than a hundred […]
It is fitting that the stately white clapboard building that is home to the Martha’s VIneyard Museum has a storied history. The U.S. government chose the site overlooking Vineyard Haven Harbor to build a lighthouse in 1855, which was decommissioned in 1859. At the end of the 19th century, it was converted into a marine […]