The Wasque Reservation sandplain curves downward to the dunes disappearing into the indigo waves of Katama Bay off Chappaquiddick. The white-crested breakers recede into fog above the ocean. A large pick-up truck, which has been converted to a safari vehicle, rumbles along sandy roads and onto the beach, past Wasque Point toward Drunkard’s Cove. Its riders are jostled about in the back. They bump shoulders and exchange good-natured smiles, their fingers wrapped tightly around their binoculars. Five-year-old Anna Brody thinks the ride in the safari truck is the best part of the trip.
The new Dike Bridge is complete and now open for pedestrian traffic. Gates are being installed today and in a week, the bridge will be open to limited off-road vehicle use.
“They’ve done a great job,” said Edgartown highway superintendent Laurence A. Mercier. “The contractor G. M. Berkley did excellent work. We had a state inspector down on Wednesday and he said there are no problems. The bridge will be open soon.” The bridge was built at a cost of $182,256 and paid for by the state. It passes over Poucha Pond.
The Cape Pogue beach - two miles of it - including virtually all the strip with the ocean on one side and Cape Pogue Bay on the other, has been given to the Trustees of Reservations by Charles Sumner Bird and Oliver P. Filley, Chappaquiddick summer residents who acquired the beach some years ago.
The strip is one of great natural interest and beauty - often of windswept beauty - embodying the unaltered character of so much of the exposed shoreline of the Vineyard.
The Edgartown shellfish committee will shelve for now a plan to expand oyster farms to Cape Pogue Pond, amid conflicting opinions about protecting the bay and a desire to build on aquaculture.
A large project to remove World War II-era munitions from Cape Pogue is scheduled to resume this month, with additional work required because of the large quantity of practice bombs found in the area.
The January storm that brought near-record snowfall and powerful wind gusts to the Vineyard also toppled one of two historic stone chimneys at remote Cape Pogue on Chappaquiddick. On a walk last week Rachel Self found the iconic structure in pieces on the beach.
The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank has signed a contract to purchase 41.1 acres on Chappaquiddick, including some 900 feet of shoreline on Cape Pogue Bay.
The acquisition will be added to its existing Three Ponds Reservation, bringing the total contiguous land area to 357.7 acres.
In an announcement on Monday, the land bank said the land, at the end of Jeffers Lane, would cost $4.95 million. The sellers are Judith Self Murphy, E. Baldwin Self Jr. and Karen Self Osler.
