This past weekend I was able to take a retreat into the nature of Cape Cod and, in doing so, was reminded of Henry Beston and The Outermost House. When Henry was 38 years old he headed for a 2-week vacation in a small cottage he had built 2 miles south of the Coast Guard Station in Eastham, MA. Anyone who has spent time on the Cape in the fall can relate to the fact that after the two weeks were over, “the beauty and mystery of this earth and outer sea so possessed [him] and held [him] that [he] could not go.”
This was the beginning of his “solitary sojourn” on the beach referred to as the thoughtful man’s “year in nature”.
The house he built on the dunes of Cape Cod, he referred to as “Fo’Castle” was moved several times until finally being washed out to sea by the “Blizzard of 78”. Our trip actually coincided with the 43rd anniversary of the storm that hung over the area from February 5th through the 8th in 1978. Growing up on the Cape and spending my first 5 years in Orleans I remember visiting the small weathered “Outermost House” tucked into the dunes, and also the sadness of everyone when it did not survive the storm.
While we were not able to see the original house this past weekend, we did get to visit the Inn at the Oaks, a bed and breakfast with ties to Beston having hosted him several times as he finally completed the writing of The Outermost House. Originally built in 1870, and serving guests since the 1920s, the inn has dedicated the suite of rooms he once occupied by naming them after the author and even have some of the original furnishings intact.
Check out my Instagram feed where I share more of my own pictures of this beautiful landscape, as well as some from the inn itself. It should be noted that many references to The Outermost House were made when the National Park Service granted this “outermost” land National Park Status in the 1950s. The National Seashore was an anchor for me from childhood through adulthood and comforted me through many changes and challenges in my life. While the landforms have been shifted and moved by years of nature’s forces, the wildness and beauty of the terrain still remains.
Links to sites mentioned:
The National Seashore Cape Cod
The Outer Most House - Good Reads
(I do not have any relationship to or receive any compensation from any of the resources mentioned.)