Martha's Vineyard

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Map of Martha's Vineyard. The island is roughly triangular in shape, and is approximately 30 kilometers in length.
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Map of Martha's Vineyard. The island is roughly triangular in shape, and is approximately 30 kilometers in length.

Martha's Vineyard is a 100 square mile (259 km²) island off the southern coast of Cape Cod, and is often known simply as "the Vineyard". Located in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, the Vineyard makes up most of Dukes County, Massachusetts (the rest of the county consists of Cuttyhunk and the other Elizabeth Islands). It was home to one of the earliest known deaf communities, and consequently a special dialect of sign language, Martha's Vineyard Sign Language, developed on the island. The island is now primarily known as a summer colony.

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History

Originally inhabited by the Wampanoag Indians, Martha's Vineyard was known in their language as Noepe, or "land amid the streams." It was named Martha's Vineyard by English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold, who sailed to the island in 1602. Gosnold's mother-in-law as well as his daughter, who died in infancy, were each named Martha, and even today there are many areas of wild grapes on the island.

Like the nearby island Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard was brought to prominence in the 19th century by the whaling industry, sending ships around the world to hunt whales for their oil and blubber. The discovery of petroleum in Pennsylvania, producing a cheaper source of oil for lamps, led to an almost complete collapse of the industry by 1870. The island struggled financially through the Great Depression, but since then its reputation as a resort for tourists and the wealthy has continued to grow. There is still a substantial Wampanoag population on the Vineyard, mainly located in the town of Aquinnah. Aquinnah (which means "land under the hill" in the Wampanoag language) was formerly known as Gay Head, but was recently renamed its original Indian name.

The island received international notoriety on July 18, 1969, when Mary Jo Kopechne was killed when a car driven by U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy drove off the Dike Bridge (also spelled Dyke Bridge). The bridge connected Chappaquiddick Island (which is next to the Vineyard and generally thought of as part of it) with an isolated barrier beach. Martha's Vineyard received further notoriety on July 16, 1999, when a plane crash off its coast claimed the lives of pilot John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette, and her sister, Lauren Bessette. Kennedy's mother, former U.S. first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, maintained a home in Aquinnah until her death in 1994.

Martha's Vineyard received more world-wide attention when U.S. President William J. Clinton spent vacation time on the island during his presidency, along with his wife, future US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and their daughter Chelsea.

In 1974, Steven Spielberg filmed the movie Jaws on Martha's Vineyard. Spielberg selected island native Jay Mello for the part of Sheriff Brody's son Sean Brody, and used scores of island natives as extras. Later, scenes from Jaws 2 and Jaws the Revenge were filmed on the island as well. In June, 2005 the island celebrated the 30th anniversary of Jaws with a weekend long "JawsFest."

In 1977, Martha's Vineyard tried to secede from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (it also tried to secede from the United States and become an independent nation) along with the island of Nantucket.

On March 5, 1982, John Belushi died of a drug overdose in Los Angeles, California, and was buried four days later in Abel's Hill Cemetery in Chilmark. On his gravestone is the quote: "Though I may be gone, Rock 'N' Roll lives on."

In the summer of 2000, an outbreak of tularemia, also known as rabbit fever, resulted in one fatality, and brought the interest of the CDC as a potential investigative ground for aerosolized Francisella tularensis. Over the following summers, Martha's Vineyard was identified as the only place in the world where documented cases of tularemia resulted from lawn mowing. The research may prove valuable in preventing bioterrorism.

Political geography

Martha's Vineyard is made up of six towns:

Tourism

The Vineyard grew as a tourist destination primarily because of its very pleasant summer weather — during many summers the temperature never breaks 90°F — and many beautiful beaches.

Wealthy Boston sea captains and merchant traders formerly created estates on Martha's Vineyard with their trading profits, and today, the Vineyard has become one of the Northeast's most prominent summering havens, attracting celebrities like the Clintons, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Ted Danson and Mary Steenbergen, Carly Simon, James Taylor, Dan Aykroyd and Donna Dixon, Spike Lee, Michael J. Fox, William F. Buckley, Alan Dershowitz, former US Senator Bill Bradley, Diana Ross, Beverly Sills, Art Buchwald, Walter Cronkite, Mike Wallace, David Letterman, and the late Katherine Graham and Princess Diana.

The Vineyard is home to Troubled Shores, a theater company that teaches and performs comedy improv along with other types of theater. Its improv troupe, WIMP, held their last show on July 6, 2005. The IMPers, a teenage improv troup, perform regularly. Troubled Shores also runs a summer theater camp, known as IMP All Things Theater Camp. The Vineyard's only professional theatre is The Vineyard Playhouse located in Vineyard Haven. During the summers the theatre converts from community based productions to a SPT (Small Professional Theatre) approved space featuring equity actors from around the country.

Martha's Vineyard is one of the traditional resorts of U.S.'s African-American upper class. Due to a long history of racial harmony on the island, many black families started vacationing there a century ago. The epicenter of black culture on Martha's Vineyard is the town of Oak Bluffs, where many African American celebrities own houses. Its main beach has been dubbed "The Inkwell" by African-American residents.

It now has a year-round population of about 15,000 people in six towns, but in summer the population swells to 100,000 residents, with more than 25,000 additional visitors coming and going on ferries every day. The most crowded weekend is July 4. In general, the summer season runs from June to the end of August, correlating with the months most American children are not in school.

See also


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