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The Town of Bourne is comprised of
several villages, including Buzzards Bay-02532,
Sagamore-02561, Sagamore Beach-02562,
Bournedale-02532, Pocasset-02559,
Cataumet-02534, and Monument Beach-02553.
Along with the Towns of Sandwich, Falmouth and Mashpee,
Bourne is also home to a portion of the Massachusetts
Military Reservation, including Otis Air Force Base and
Camp Edwards, which share their own zip code-02542.
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History
Bourne was first settled in
1640 as a part of the town of
Sandwich. It was officially
incorporated in
1884 as the last town to be
incorporated in Barnstable County. It
was named for Jonathan Bourne, whose
father, Richard Bourne, served in the
Massachusetts General Court at the time
of settlement, as well as helping to
found the settlement in Mashpee.[1]
The town lies at the northeast corner of
Buzzards Bay, and is the site of
Aptucxet Trading Post, the nation's
oldest store. It was founded by the
Pilgrims in 1627 at a site halfway
between the two rivers which divided the
Cape from the rest of the state. It was
out of this location that the
Cape Cod Canal was formed, in order
to save time and lives by eliminating
the need to sail around the hazardous
eastern shores of Cape Cod. Because of
the canal, Bourne is now considered the
"first" town on the Cape, as all three
bridges (the
Bourne,
Sagamore and the
Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge all
are located within the town. Also, due
to the Canal, the town is divided, the
majority of land lying on the Cape.
Bourne is also the site of the
Massachusetts Maritime Academy, a
marine college located at the southern
mouth of the canal on the western shore.
Otis Air National Guard Base is also
partially located in the town.
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Geography and Transportation
The Bourne Bridge
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the
town has a total area of 136.8
km˛ (52.8
mi˛). 106.0 km˛ (40.9 mi˛) of it is
land and 30.8 km˛ (11.9 mi˛) of it
(22.53%) is water. Bourne is bordered by
Sandwich to the east,
Falmouth to the south,
Buzzards Bay and
Wareham to the west, and
Plymouth and
Cape Cod Bay to the north. The town
lies approximately twenty miles west of
Barnstable, fifty-five miles
south-southeast of
Boston, and equidistantly from
Providence, Rhode Island. The border
with Plymouth and Wareham in Plymouth
County constitutes the only landed
border between Barnstable County and any
other county (the borders with
Dukes and
Nantucket lie in
Nantucket Sound). Major localities
of Bourne include Bournedale, Buzzards
Bay, Cataumet, Monument Beach, Pocasset,
and Sagamore, amongst others.
Bourne's geography was formed around
its location on Buzzards Bay and the
Cape Cod Canal. There are several necks
(the local term for a
peninsula and islands along the
shore, which create several small coves
and harbors. There are also several
small ponds and rivers, all of which
(except the Herring River, which feeds
directly into the Canal) feed into
Buzzards Bay. The largest of these,
Buttermilk Bay, lies along the border
with Wareham. Also, because of the large
parcel of land occupied by Otis A.N.G.B.,
the majority of settlement is either
along the shores of the Canal or along
Buzzards Bay. There is also a small
neighborhood (South Sagamore) located
between the Canal and the northern
boundaries of the base. The town also
has a town forest and a small portion of
the Shawme-Crowell State Forest (which
is located along Otis's northern
boundary). There are also many beaches
along its shores, mostly along Buzzards
Bay (although Sagamore Beach lies along
Cape Cod Bay).
There are no interstate highways at
all on Cape Cod. As such, the largest
highways in Bourne are
Route 3,
U.S. Route 6,
Route 25 and
Route 28. Route 6 enters the town
through Wareham and splits in two along
either side of the canal before becoming
the Mid-Cape Highway, a four-lane
divided highway beginning at the western
approach to the Sagamore Bridge. Along
the canal, it is officially labeled as
US 6E & US 6W (although both routes are
two-way). Route 3, also known as the
Pilgrim Highway, ends at the junction of
6E and the Sagamore Bridge. Up until
2006, the intersection was a rotary,
which caused daily traffic nightmares
during the busy summer tourist season.
The rotary was removed, and final work
should be done by 2007. Route 25's
terminus is also in town, at the western
approach of the Bourne Bridge. At that
point, US 6W and Route 28 (which is
concurrent with Route 6 from there to
the Wareham line) cross the bridge and
create another four lane divided
highway, officially known as McArthur
Boulevard. At a rotary at the main gate
to Otis,
Route 28A spurs off and heads
towards Wood's Hole in Falmouth. It is
also at this point that the highway goes
from being a surface road to a true
limited-access highway.
The third bridge over the Canal is
the vertical lift railroad bridge, which
brings the railroad to the Cape.
Although traffic along this railroad
line no longer reaches the lower Cape,
as it originally did, it still brings
rail traffic to the base. There are no
public air facilities in town; the town
is roughly equidistantly located between
the Plymouth and Barnstable regional
airports. The nearest national and
international airport is
Logan International Airport in
Boston. Additionally, there are ferry
services to the islands in neighboring
Falmouth.
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Demographics
The
Christmas Tree Shops
store is a major tourist
destination, as it is the
first store after the
Sagamore Bridge.
As of the
census2
of 2000, there were 18,721 people, 7,439
households, and 5,013 families residing
in the town. The
population density was 176.7/km˛
(457.6/mi˛). There were 9,648 housing
units at an average density of 91.1/km˛
(235.8/mi˛). The racial makeup of the
town was 94.72%
White, 1.39%
Black or
African American, 0.53%
Native American, 0.71%
Asian, 0.01%
Pacific Islander, 0.99% from
other races, and 1.65% from two or
more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 1.46% of the
population.
There were 7,439 households out of
which 28.2% had children under the age
of 18 living with them, 54.6% were
married couples living together,
9.4% had a female householder with no
husband present, and 32.6% were
non-families. 26.8% of all households
were made up of individuals and 11.8%
had someone living alone who was 65
years of age or older. The average
household size was 2.39 and the average
family size was 2.90.
In the town the population was
spread out with 21.9% under the age of
18, 9.4% from 18 to 24, 27.3% from 25 to
44, 23.8% from 45 to 64, and 17.6% who
were 65 years of age or older. The
median age was 39 years. For every 100
females there were 97.1 males. For every
100 females age 18 and over, there were
95.9 males.
The median income for a household in
the town was $45,113, and the median
income for a family was $51,603. Males
had a median income of $40,217 versus
$28,163 for females. The
per capita income for the town was
$22,092. About 5.8% of families and 7.1%
of the population were below the
poverty line, including 10.4% of
those under age 18 and 4.7% of those age
65 or over.
[edit]
Recent population trends
Sources:
Massachusetts Institute for Social and
Economic Research and
U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division
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Government, Services and Education
The Windmill at the Aptucxet
Trading Post
Bourne is represented in the
Massachusetts House of Representatives
as a part of three seperate districts,
the Second Plymouth, Fifth Barnstable,
and a third district which includes
portions of Falmouth and Mashpee. The
town is represented in the
Massachusetts Senate as a part of
the Plymouth and Barnstable district,
which includes Falmouth, Kingston,
Pembroke, Plymouth, Plympton, Sandwich
and portions of Barnstable.[2]
The town is home to the Seventh Barracks
of Troop D of the
Massachusetts State Police.[3].
On the national level, Bourne is a
part of
Massachusetts's 10th congressional
district, and is currently
represented by
Bill Delahunt. The state's senior
(Class I) member of the
United States Senate, re-elected in
2006, is
Ted Kennedy. The junior (Class II)
Senator, up for re-election in 2008, is
John Kerry.
The town uses the
open town meeting form of
government, which is led by a
board of selectmen. The town hall,
like the police station, lies on the
mainland side of the Canal. There are
four volunteer fire stations located
throughout the town, and seven post
offices for the town's eight
ZIP codes. The town's Jonathan
Bourne Library is located near the
Aptucxet Trading Post, just south of the
Bourne Bridge, and is a member of the
CLAMS (Cape Library Automated Materials
Sharing) network.
Bourn operates its own school
department, with five public schools in
the town. There are three elementary
schools, Ella F. Hoxie, James F. Peebles
and the Otis Memorial Elementary School.
All four serve grades one through four,
with Otis being the only school to host
kindergarten and pre-kindergarten
classes. The town's middle school serves
grades five through eight, and Bourne
High School operates grades nine through
twelve. The school's colors are maroon
and blue, and their teams are the
Canalmen and Canalwomen. Interestingly,
their logo is one of the two main
bridges in town; since both look alike,
no one can say which one it actually is.
Bourne's chief rival is Wareham High
School.
Additionally, Bourne is home to the
Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical
School, located above Route 6W. The
school serves Bourne, Falmouth and
Sandwich on the Cape, as well as Wareham
and Marion off it. The town also has
three private schools: Saint Margaret's
Regional in Buzzards Bay, a Catholic
school which serves grades K-8; The
Bridgeview School in Sagamore, a private
Montessori school serving Pre-K
through 6th grades; and Beach Rose
Waldorf School of Cape Cod, a
Waldorf school located just south of
the Bourne Bridge, serving grades Pre-K
through 8. The Massachusetts Maritime
Academy, a state maritime college, is
also located in Buzzards Bay at the
western mouth of the Cape Cod Canal.
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From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
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