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Town
of Truro
02666 |
Truro also includes North Truro-02652. |
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History
The
Pilgrims stopped in Truro and
Provincetown in
1620 as their original choice for a
landing before later declaring the area
unsuitable. While there, they discovered
fresh water and corn stored by the
Native Americans. The accuracy of the
latter discovery, on what is now known
as Corn Hill, remains disputed.
Truro was settled by Europeans in
1700 as the northernmost portion of
the town of
Eastham. The town was officially
separated and incorporated in
1709. Fishing, whaling and
shipbuilding made up the town's early
industry; these industries died off,
however, as the harsh tides of the Lower
Cape began decimating the town's main
port in the 1850s. Today, Truro is one
of the more exclusive towns on the Cape,
noted for its affluent residences and
the rolling hills and dunes along the
coast.
Truro is the site of the
Cape Cod Highland Lighthouse (also
known as the Cape Cod Light), the first
lighthouse on Cape Cod. The first
building was erected in 1797; the
current lighthouse was built in 1857.
The entire 430-ton light was moved about
1/10 of a mile inland in 1996, its
original perch just ten yards from the
edge of the shore cliffs.[1]
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Geography
and Transportation
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the
town has a total area of 68.2
km˛ (26.3
mi˛). 54.5 km˛ (21.0 mi˛) of it is
land and 13.6 km˛ (5.3 mi˛) of it
(20.02%) is water. Truro is located just
south and east of the "tip" of Cape Cod,
and is bordered by Provincetown to the
northwest, the
Atlantic Ocean to the north and
east,
Wellfleet to the south, and
Cape Cod Bay to the west. The town
is thirty-eight miles by road to
Barnstable, fifty miles from the
Sagamore Bridge and 105 miles by
road from
Boston.
The topography generally slopes downward
from the Atlantic to Cape Cod Bay sides,
and from south to north. There are
several small ponds throughout town, all
of which combined are smaller than the
Pilgrim Lake, just east of the
Provincetown town line, and just south
of the sand dunes which make up most of
the northern tip of the Cape. Pamet
Harbor, a small inlet, is in the
southern half of the town on the Cape
Cod Bay side, and leads to the Pamet
River. Just south of the lighthouse is a
Coast Guard radar station, equipped with
a doppler satellite tower (which
contrasts awkwardly with the neighboring
stone
Jenny Lind Tower).
U.S. Route 6 is the main route
through town, passing through the town
from south to north on its way to
Provincetown. The "second" portion of
the Cape's
Route 6A begins in the town, tracing
the road's original path, and passing
into Provincetown barely 250 feet south
of the main route. There is no rail or
air service in the town; the nearest
regional airport is located in
neighboring Provincetown. The nearest
national and international air service
can be found at
Logan International Airport in
Boston.
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Demographics
As of the
census2
of 2000, there were 2,087 people, 907
households, and 515 families residing in
the town. The
population density was 38.3/km˛
(99.1/mi˛). There were 2,551 housing
units at an average density of 46.8/km˛
(121.2/mi˛). The racial makeup of the
town was 95.11%
White, 1.87%
African American, 0.43%
Native American, 0.38%
Asian, 0.10%
Pacific Islander, 0.77% from
other races, and 1.34% from two or
more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 1.15% of the
population.
With 2,551 housing units but only 907
resident households, a majority of
Truro's residences are summer vacation
properties. Most of these sit vacant for
most of the year, and the town's
population swells enormously between
Memorial Day and Labor Day.
There were 907 households out of which
21.2% had children under the age of 18
living with them, 46.3% were
married couples living together,
7.9% had a female householder with no
husband present, and 43.2% were
non-families. 32.0% of all households
were made up of individuals and 12.5%
had someone living alone who was 65
years of age or older. The average
household size was 2.18 and the average
family size was 2.76.
In the town the population was spread
out with 17.4% under the age of 18, 4.1%
from 18 to 24, 27.2% from 25 to 44,
34.4% from 45 to 64, and 17.0% who were
65 years of age or older. The median age
was 46 years. For every 100 females
there were 86.5 males. For every 100
females age 18 and over, there were 84.7
males.
The median income for a household in the
town was $42,981, and the median income
for a family was $51,389. Males had a
median income of $37,208 versus $30,435
for females. The
per capita income for the town was
$22,608. About 4.8% of families and
11.2% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 8.5% of
those under age 18 and 10.3% of those
age 65 or over.
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Opposition to development
Like most small incorporated communities
in New England, Truro uses an
open town meeting form of
government. Through town meeting, in
addition to the town's planning board
and the
Cape Cod Commission, some of Truro's
residents have made considerable (and
often successful) efforts to prevent
development projects they perceive as
threatening the town's rural charm, such
as a proposed
Stop & Shop grocery store and
WCDJ communication tower.
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Government, Services and Education
The Cape Cod Light. The
original site is marked by a
boulder in the foreground.
Truro is represented in the
Massachusetts House of Representatives
as a part of the Fourth Barnstable
district, which includes (with the
exception of Brewster) all the towns
east and north of Harwich on the Cape.
The town is represented in the
Massachusetts Senate as a part of
the Cape and Islands District, which
includes all of Cape Cod, Martha's
Vineyard and Nantucket except the towns
of Bourne, Falmouth, Sandwich and a
portion of Barnstable.[2]
Truro is patrolled by the Second
(Yarmouth) Barracks of Troop D of the
Massachusetts State Police.[3].
On the national level, Truro 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.
Truro is governed by the
open town meeting form of
government, and is led by a town
administrator and a
board of selectmen. The town has its
own police and fire departments,
headquartered on Route 6 just south of
the Route 6A split. The town has its own
post office on Route 6A, and the town's
Truro Public Library is located between
the two routes in a secluded spot,
lending to the slogan "The Library In
The Woods."
Truro operates the Truro Central School
for students from kindergarten through
sixth grade. The town does not have its
own middle or high school; a tuition
agreement is in place with the town and
the Provincetown and Nauset Regional
school districts. There are no private
schools anywhere on the lower Cape; high
school students additionally have the
option of attending the Cape Cod
Regional Technical High School in
Harwich free of charge.
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Truro in Film
Truro, Massachusetts was depicted in
Men in Black II (2002), having been
the town in which Tommy Lee Jones'
character "Agent K" retired from the
"Men in Black" organization to become a
postal worker. The post office was
portrayed as being a solitary building
in the middle of nowhere, but in
reality, Truro's post office is right in
the heart of downtown Truro, which is
also home to a small convenience store
and a few shops.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Click for large map of the Islands
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