From the Vineyard Gazette edition of March 13, 1953:

At 11 a.m. yesterday morning, the temperature stood at 50, and the barometer at 30.5. This marked a rise in temperature of thirty-eight degrees in less than that number of hours, following the coldest snap for the winter.

Four days and nights had passed with the temperature hovering between 10 and 20 degrees day and night, water freezing over in a matter of minutes when exposed in such things as bird baths, and small ponds were completely sheathed in ice for the first time in a year.

The ground was frozen deeper than at any time throughout the winter, not deep at all as such things go, but worrisome to those who had been watching their daffodils springing to a height of four to six inches during the weeks before. On several occasions there were fluttering snowflakes in the air, and throughout the entire period a heavy northwester breezed from thirty to forty-five miles an hour.

Overnight the ground thawed to mud and buds actually seemed to swell. The sufferers from viruses who had begun to improve, relapsed, and the air grew moist beneath soft, gray clouds that seemed to promise spring showers.

New England Weather! There was never anything like it! There still isn’t!

Because of the months that have passed since the Coast Guard building was moved from Cuttyhunk to Menemsha Creek, public interest in the new station has waned and, indeed, few people have knowledge of exactly what has been going on at the Creek. But the fact is that operations have never ceased.

In the history of Island building-moving, no project ever attracted so much attention. Even the employment of eighty yoke of oxen in olden days failed to create the furor that this moving did, and with very good reason. The heavily constructed building, three stories in height, crossed the Sound on a scow but slightly wider than itself, constituting something in the nature of cargo that certainly looked top-heavy even to the inexperienced.

To go back still further into the history of this unusual incident, it might be explained that the building is not an old one, but is indeed comparatively new. But situated as it was, on the sandy eastern point of Cuttyhunk, the storm tide of one of the hurricanes cut through the point, isolating the Coast Guard station, and making it inaccessible except by boat, and not too easy at that. It therefore became necessary to abandon the building and construct another, which was done.

At about this time it became realized that the Vineyard Coast Guard station, established at Gay Head in 1895, was in serious danger of sliding over the cliffs on which it is located. The hurricanes had affected this building site as well, and undermining the cliffs had caused slides and increased erosion which seriously threatened to undermine the building itself. The decision to abandon the Gay Head station was reluctantly made, and the decision to move the station to Menemsha Creek was only reached after much pressure had been brought to bear upon Washington.

By moving the Coast Guard headquarters to Menemsha Creek, the crew will be but a few rods from their dock and boats and the efficiency of this station should be greatly increased.

The prairie chicken has been selected by the National Wildlife Federation to symbolize critical natural resources during the observance of National Wildlife Week, March 15-21. Once common from the Appalachians to the Rockies, the pinnated grouse or prairie chicken is now one of America’s disappearing birds.

According to the Massachusetts Audubon Society, The Bay State should have a particular interest in this symbol of wildlife week, for its own eastern species of the prairie chicken, known as the heath hen, disappeared forever on Martha’s Vineyard in 1931. When the first colonists came it was abundant. Governor Winthrop observed that the heath hens were so plentiful on the bushy plains in the neighborhood of Boston that servants specified in agreements with masters that they should not have to eat heath hen more than few times per week.

Unable to adapt to changing environment, hunting, and destruction of its natural habitats, continues the story, the heath hen was no longer found on the mainland of Massachusetts after 1840. Martha’s Vineyard was its final home and there, despite reservation protection, its numbers steadily seemed to decline after a fire in 1916. In the mid-west this saga may be repeated without concerted action toward saving the prairie chicken.

The prairie chicken serves during Wildlife Week to remind Americans that abundant water, rich soil, and a wealth of wildlife were our heritage from nature — a heritage which it took centuries of slow creation to develop. The story of one species’ near destruction becomes a caution sign, reminding us that natural resources which we destroy now are lost— they cannot be manufactured without the slow, tedious work of life through the ages!

Compiled by Hilary Wall
library@mvgazette.com