Island about 30 miles (50 km) by ferry south from Cape Cod, known as a tourist destination and summer colony

How to Get There

Overview

Nantucket is an island about 30 miles (50 km) by ferry south from Cape Cod, in Massachusetts. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government.

Nantucket is a tourist destination and summer colony.

The National Park Service cites Nantucket, designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1966, as being the "finest surviving architectural and environmental example of a late 18th- and early 19th-century New England seaport town."

Etymology

Nantucket probably takes its name from a Wampanoag word, transliterated variously as natocke, nantaticu, nantican, nautica or natockete, which is part of Wampanoag lore about the creation of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The meaning of the term is uncertain, although it may have meant "far away island" or "sandy, sterile soil tempting no one". Wampanoag is an Eastern Algonquian language of southern New England. The Nehantucket (known to Europeans as the Niantic) were an Algonquin-speaking people of the area.

Nantucket's nickname, "The Little Grey Lady of the Sea," refers to the island as it appears from the ocean when it is fog-bound.

Arts and culture

Nantucket has several noted museums and galleries, including the Maria Mitchell Association and the Nantucket Whaling Museum.

Nantucket can be reached by sea from the mainland by The Steamship Authority, Hy-Line Cruises, or Freedom Cruise Line, or by private boat.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Nantucket", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0