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 the County 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.
History
Originally (and still) 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. It is debated that the original name of the island was Martin's Vineyard (possibly after the captain of Gosnold's ship, John Martin); many islanders up to the 1700s called it by this name. The validity of this is unknown, though.
Like the nearby island of 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. After the Old Colony railroad came to mainland Woods Hole in 1872, summer residences began to develop on the island. 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. While the Clintons have made the Island famous in recent years, during the 1800's another famous President Ulysses S. Grant was also a summer visitor, staying in a Gingerbread cottage in the Methodist campground in Oak Bluffs.
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."
Distressed over redistricting, in 1977, Martha's Vineyard tried to secede from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts along with the island of Nantucket to become the nation's 51st state [1].
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." Due to the many visitors to his grave and the threat of vandalism, his body was moved elsewhere within the cemetery. Many people visit his grave and in the summer it is often littered with beer cans, joints and other "tokens" to Belushi.
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, Peter Simon, Alfred Eisenstadt, 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 equity 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 center 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.
Residents
Locals refer to Martha's Vineyard as "The Island" or "The Vineyard" and its residents as "Islanders" or "Vineyarders".
Its relatively small year round population has led to a very activist citizenry who are highly involved in the Islands day to day activities. Tourism, over development, politics and many other subjects are of keen interest to the community. Keeping the balance between the much needed tourist economy and the ecology and wildlife of the island is of paramount importance.
Due to its many high profile residents, movie stars, politicians, writers and artists also band together in fundraisers and benefits to raise awareness for the fragile ecosystem of the Vineyard.
As part of local custom, residents treat visiting celebrities as ordinary tourists; paparazzi are prohibited, and celebrity shoots and public interviews are severely restricted.
Trivia
The linguist William Labov wrote his MA essay on changes in the Martha's Vineyard dialect of English. The 1963 study is widely recognised as a seminal work in the foundation of sociolinguistics.
See also
External links
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha%27s_Vineyard under GFDL
