It may have been the first time it occurred to me: places like this were secret treasures, not to be given away.
— Ira Wood
Matters of Opinion June 2026: Secret Places of an Ancient Wash-ashore
Ira Wood discovers he likes holding onto Cape Cod's secret places — don't you?
Click on the image to listen to Ira as he reads the column
June 2026 – Do you have secret places? Hikes through thickets of blazing orange day lilies? Hidden ponds far from the summer crowds. Do you tell people about them? What people?
Do you have a favorite beach?
When I first moved to Cape Cod, I had a favorite beach. Just a gentle recess between the dunes on the bayside. To reach it you drove down a deeply pitted, narrow, sand road, always mindful of cars in the opposite direction. Once every summer, it seemed, it took out my muffler. And yet the hassle was all the more rewarding because once there, you felt that you had earned the pleasure of a long bake in the sun, or a solitary walk, or a nude swim.
In anticipation of a business trip, we asked some friends from Boston house sit. Wanting to be a gracious host, I showed them my special beach but asked them, very seriously, to please keep the location a secret. But a few weeks after our return, there they were with four of their friends, who would no doubt tell four more of theirs. It may have been the first time it occurred to me: places like this were secret treasures, not to be given away.
How to keep hidden treasures … hidden?
Some years later, and now a member of the Select Board, I was at a meeting with the Cape Cod National Seashore superintendent, who shared their plan to advertise all of the Park’s bike trails and dune walks, hiking paths and beaches, to visitors from all over the world, among them the little beach I loved. In a kind of panic, I made a wild proposition. I suggested that of course they’d want to highlight all the Park’s public beaches, but why not simply say the Park is full of hidden treasures for visitors to discover for themselves…and they bought it. The little beach was still safe.
What happens when hidden places get discovered?
Its cover was blown for good, however, when a freelance travel writer sold an article about it to a large national newspaper that appeared the Sunday before the Fourth of July. Within days the parking lot was jammed, cars got stuck in the sand, and the beach was littered with plastic bags, diapers, and beer bottles.
I know it’s naïve to imagine we might still have secret places out here, certainly now, when uploading a photograph of a beach offers many people more pleasure than swimming in it. But an old fashioned part of me has always thought we ought to earn the right to special places…either by living here long enough to find out about them from the old timers or discovering them on our own. Right or wrong it seems to me, there are dues to pay.
Who should we share with?
Lately, posts from a new social media network have begun appearing in my inbox, primarily used by newcomers seeking local connections, on the face of it, a helpful service. Except what does it mean for someone to suddenly move here and consider themselves fully entitled to know the places it took you years to find out about?
The other day I saw a post that said, Hi, I’m Heather, your new neighbor from West Hartford. We just opened our new summer house. Where’s the best spot to pick blueberries? And, where can I park when the Newcomb Hollow lot is full?
What makes a neighbor?
I can really tell I’m a crusty old-time Cape Codder when I start sounding exactly like the people who used to call me a wash-ashore, but in my opinion having an extra nine hundred thousand dollars for a second home does not make someone my neighbor.
My neighbor is in the house across the street shivering when the power goes out in February. My neighbor is struggling to find a new primary care doc because hers just left the local health service. My neighbor sits next to me on very boring town committees.
Heather is not my neighbor. She is entitled every joy that the Cape has to offer, but I’m not going to tell her where to park near Duck Pond, or where I get salt hay mulch, or where to pick blackberries. She’s gonna have to live here long enough to discover it for herself.
I’m Ira Wood…and that’s my opinion.
—
Ira Wood hosts The Lowdown, a weekly interview program on WOMR-FM featuring authors, politicians, artists, and scientists, as well as cops, addicts, and fishermen. His guests have included the famous, the infamous, and the eccentric, as well as dedicated men and women who work to make the Cape and the world a better place. He served four terms on the Wellfleet Board of Selectmen.
