Cape Ann Chronicles

Cape Ann Chronicles: A Four Century Journey

This is history as you've never experienced it-a tapestry of moments, not an encyclopedia.

Cape Ann Chronicles offers twenty illuminating chapters spanning four centuries, from the Pawtucket people's sophisticated maritime culture to today's fusion of traditional fishing and digital innovation. Think of it as a curated gallery walk through time rather than an exhaustive catalog. Each chapter captures the flavor and character of an era through carefully selected stories, colorful personalities, and revealing details that bring the past to life.

Sample the fascinating moments:

• The Pawtucket people's fishing weirs that demonstrated environmental wisdom modern science still struggles to match
• Champlain's 1605 discovery of a beautiful place he called Beauport
• The Dorchester Company's audacious 1623 gamble that became England's fourth New England colony
• Sea captains who profited from global trade while dodging pirates, storms, and British customs officials
• Why Cape Ann pragmatically ignored Salem's witch trial hysteria (too busy fishing to worry about flying neighbors)
• How Cape Ann granite was used in buildings from Boston to Washington D.C., literally exporting pieces of itself
• The Great Gale of 1846 that fundamentally changed how communities approached the sea

What makes this chronicle unique?

Author and Cape Ann photographer Michael Robinson doesn't attempt to document every event, person, or development across four centuries-that would require multiple volumes and induce historical fatigue. Instead, he's carefully selected the moments that reveal character, the stories that illuminate larger patterns, the details that help you understand what makes Cape Ann distinctively itself.

Twenty compelling chapters. Four hundred years of carefully chosen moments. One unforgettable peninsula. No pretense of completeness-just the best stories, well told.