One of the most photographed scenes of Cape Cod is a weathered boardwalk reaching across the marsh from Bass Hole to Clay’s Creek on the north coast of Yarmouth. It is also a favorite locale for birdwatching, weddings, viewing the sunset, and stealing kisses in the moonlight.

Thomas C. Thacher, an early environmentalist, would be well pleased.

When T. C. arose in the town meeting of 1911 to propose creating a small park at Bass Hole and extending the old boardwalk across the marsh and Clay’s Creek, he probably never imagined such popularity. But he had an eye for the town’s scenery.

"There is lots of beauty in Yarmouth and we want the citizens of the town all to share it and enjoy it," he said. "We propose to take the landing, convert it for public purposes and keep it up in a high grade way."

But Tom and other town fathers had a more compelling reason for extending the boardwalk. They wanted to reach Gray’s Beach across Clay’s Creek. No, not the small swimming basin at the end of Center Street which we now call Gray’s Beach, but the original Gray’s Beach -- a broad shimmering expanse of white sand extending from the entrance to Bass Hole southwestward along the marsh for more than a mile to toward Mill Creek.

In T. C.’s day, the man-made swimming hole did not exist. That area was all marsh, with a short boardwalk reaching to a small boat landing in Bass Hole. The town actually kept a boat there, so that anybody wanting a swim could row across to Chapin Beach in Dennis. It must have been annoying when other would-be swimmers arrived at the Yarmouth dock and hollered. You were duty bound to row back across Bass Hole to pick them up.

The early boardwalk. Note that in contrast to today, the boardwalk went north toward Chapin, the went west along the end of the marsh. Click to enlarge.

The Thacher family offered $300 for half the cost, a substantial sum in those days, and the Selectmen appropriated another $300 for the full cost of the project.

In their 1912 report the Board of Selectmen noted that "the generosity of the Thacher family" brought about an extension of the boardwalk by some 1000 feet making it possible to walk to Gray’s Beach at any tide. It also included building "a string of bath houses and suitable benches which makes this a delightful place for bathing and all shore recreation."

The late Guido Perera, descendant of early Yarmouth settler Antony Thacher, and benefactor of the Historical Society, described the Gray’s Beach of his boyhood as "a sand peninsula which extended from the entrance of Mill Creek all the way to Bass Hole, with an interruption for Lone Tree Creek. There were no high dunes, but a broad white sand beach running along the marsh, where we usually went swimming."

Helen Dolan on Gray’s Beach, with the boardwalk in the background.

By the 1950s, the old Gray’s Beach had washed away in a series of storms and changing tidal forces, but fortunately for the pleasure of later generations, the Boardwalk continued on.

Of course there were occasional interruptions caused by powerful storms and there were several reconstructions of the boardwalk.

While hurricanes of 1938 and 1944 wrought considerable damage to Cape Cod, the Bass Hole area was relatively spared except for "damage to flakes and poles and the bridge" across Clays Creek.

But the story was quite different with the three-day northeaster of February 1978. Furious winds and tide-driven ice floes pushed up pilings and ripped out major sections of the historic boardwalk. Due to the time required to get federal disaster funds and contracts, it was more than a year before the marsh lovers got their boardwalk opened again.

Meanwhile, the beauty of the scene -- with no parking fees -- got around so that popularity steadily increased. In summertime a mobile bridge was installed across Clay’s Creek -- at low tide the base pilings are still visible -- so that visitors could walk all the way across the marsh to the bay shore. Of course they were dive-bombed by angry terns if they got too close to their nesting grounds in the few sandy stretches still left. In winter the bridge was removed to storage.

Eventually the removable bridge became so rickety that the whole structure needed to be replaced. In town meetings during the 1980s, the citizenry turned this down because the increased traffic was damaging the marsh.

This lack of a bridge became a problem for a couple visiting from Hamburg, Germany, who parked their car on Chapin Beach in Dennis and waded across to the Yarmouth marshes at low tide on a summer day. When they tried to return, however, they found the tide had come in.

According to George Smith who witnessed their predicament from the boardwalk, they then made their way eastward toward the Bass Hole parking lot until -- aha!-- they came to Clay’s Creek also flooded by the tide. Undaunted, the couple stripped, held their clothes over their heads and crossed the creek. According to Smitty, a woman on the boardwalk made loud complaint about this "indecent exposure." When George mentioned this to the couple as he gallantly drove them back to the Chapin parking lot, the German lady, much amused, commented "we should have charged admission."

In August 1991, our boardwalk escaped the wrath of Hurricane Bob, only to be decimated by a three-day storm starting on October 30, and known as the "Halloween Northeaster” or the “Perfect Storm". Storm surges and high winds ripped the superstructure off the pilings and swept it across the marsh toward Thacher Shore Road. The wreckage had to be collected by helicopter.

Pieces of the boardwalk flung into the marsh after a storm.

Once again it took a year to raise the money and reconstruct our favorite walkway. In January 2018, the end was again destroyed in an early January storm, but quickly repaired and opened the following July. Long may it stand!

Researched and written by Haynes Mahoney

Destruction of the boardwalk in January 2018