Things to Do in Truro: A Lighthouse Moved Between Golf Holes, and a Farm Edward Hopper Painted Twice

Highland Light: Moved 450 Feet in 18 Days, Between the 7th and 8th Holes of a Golf Course

Highland Light -- also called Cape Cod Light -- is both the first lighthouse ever built on Cape Cod and, at 66 feet, still the tallest one standing there today. The original station was authorized in 1797; it was rebuilt in brick in 1833, got a new lantern in 1840, and was rebuilt again as the current tower in 1857 at a cost of $17,000 after the earlier structure was judged unsafe. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 15, 1987.

The tower's defining modern story is its 1996 relocation, made necessary because the bluff it stood on had eroded to just over 100 feet away from the light -- down from roughly 500 feet when it was built in 1857. Contractors International Chimney Corp. (Buffalo, NY) and Expert House Movers (Maryland) -- the same two firms that moved Nauset Light in Eastham later that same year -- jacked up the 430-ton tower and rolled it 450 feet inland over 18 days, funded by roughly $1 million in federal money and $500,000 in state money plus Truro Historical Society fundraising. Wikipedia dates the move to July 1996; CapeCod.com's retrospective independently says June 1996 -- both agree on the 18 days and 450 feet, so treat the exact month as an open, minor discrepancy rather than a settled fact. The vivid, verifiable detail that outlasts either date: the move ran directly between the 7th and 8th holes of Highland Links, a working public golf course that stayed open through the whole operation -- as concrete a picture of what "coastal erosion" actually looks like on the ground as this site has found for any Cape Cod town.

As independently checked this pass, Highland Light's tower is open for climbing seasonally (roughly May through late October, with at least one source citing an April-through-Columbus-Day window -- confirm current dates directly), with a 48-inch minimum height requirement for climbers, tickets sold at the Lightkeeper's Quarters, and a guide giving a brief introduction at the base before visitors climb on their own with a second guide stationed at the top. The adjacent Highland House Museum, run by the Truro Historical Society, keeps its own separate schedule -- independently confirmed this pass as open June 1 through September 30, Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m.-1 p.m., with adult admission around $10, seniors and students around $7, and children under 10 free. Confirm both schedules and current fees directly with the Truro Historical Society (trurohistoricalsociety.org) before visiting, since tower-tour dates in particular varied across the sources checked this pass.

Pilgrim Spring Trail and Corn Hill: Where the Mayflower Party Explored, and Found Someone Else's Seed Corn

Before the Pilgrims ever reached Plymouth, they spent about five weeks exploring the Outer Cape from their first landfall at Provincetown Harbor on November 11, 1620. Pilgrim Heights, in North Truro within Cape Cod National Seashore, marks part of that brief exploration, and its Pilgrim Spring Trail is named for a freshwater spring the scouting party is said to have found and used -- a real, walkable piece of pre-Plymouth history most competitor sites skip in favor of the Plymouth Rock story.

About 2.2 miles south of North Truro, at an elevation of 118 feet, Corn Hill carries the sharper edge of that same visit: it's where the Pilgrims found, and took, a Native cache of stored seed corn shortly after landing in November 1620 -- corn that reportedly helped them survive their first winter, taken from people who had not invited them to. Today Corn Hill carries a second, entirely practical identity as a working town beach, Corn Hill Beach, on Cape Cod Bay -- a place where the deep Pilgrim-contact history and the plain "here's where you'd go swimming" reality sit on the same patch of sand, worth knowing both.

Truro Vineyards of Cape Cod: A 200-Year Farm That Grew Grain, Then Cantaloupes, and Is Now Wine and Spirits

Truro Vineyards traces to an 1813 Federal-style main house built for John and Hannah Hughes; it passed to granddaughter Amelia and her husband Michael Rich, who ran the property as a working farm for more than 200 years -- growing grain, producing milk, selling coal in the 1800s, and by the 1940s growing cantaloupes in the same warm, sandy, well-drained soil that later proved good for wine grapes. The vineyard itself was founded in 1992, and the Roberts family -- Dave Roberts, after 40 years in the wine and spirits industry -- has owned and operated it since 2007. An on-site distillery, South Hollow Spirits, produces whiskey, gin, rum, and amaro alongside the wine operation. Painter Edward Hopper depicted the property directly in two works, "Rich's House" (1930) and "Rich's Barn" (1931) -- a specific, checkable link between Truro's vineyard and its best-known cultural export that most tourism copy doesn't connect. Truro Vineyards' own site and the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce both call it "the Cape's oldest winery," a claim repeated widely but not independently cross-checked against every other Cape Cod winery's founding date.

As independently confirmed this pass directly against the vineyard's own site, the tasting room at 11 Shore Road (Route 6A), North Truro sits open year-round on a seasonal schedule -- in summer, Monday-Tuesday and Thursday-Saturday 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Sunday noon-7 p.m., with Wednesdays reserved for a by-reservation "Wine & Dine," and walk-ins welcome for regular tastings even though reservations are recommended. Free public vineyard tours run Memorial Day through Labor Day, Monday-Friday at 11 a.m. Confirm current hours and any distillery-specific tour schedule directly with the vineyard (508-487-6200) before visiting, since seasonal hours shift year to year.

Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill: 190 Workshops a Year From a $250 Credit-Card Brochure

Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill was founded in 1971 by Joyce Johnson and a small group of artists, working out of a converted 1882 barn -- formerly Snow's Stables -- that a local contractor, Peter Brown, offered up rather than see demolished. It opened in late June 1972 on essentially no budget: Johnson reportedly borrowed $250 on a new credit card just to print the first brochure, for 15 workshops. More than 50 years later, the Center runs roughly 190 workshops a year across two campuses -- its original Main Campus and the Edgewood Farm campus -- plus artist residencies and the International Encaustic Conference, a genuinely deep, continuously operating cultural institution rather than a marketing line.

Independently checked this pass against the Center's own site, its current workshop catalog spans painting, ceramics, printmaking, writing, sculpture, fiber arts, photography, and youth programs, with individual workshop prices ranging from roughly $20-$25 for short sessions up to $950 for multi-day intensives. Confirm the current-year catalog and campus assignments directly at castlehill.org before planning a visit, since the specific workshop lineup changes season to season.

Payomet Performing Arts Center: Built on a Cold War Radar Station's Old Ground

Payomet Performing Arts Center -- named for the Paomet, the Indigenous people who occupied this stretch of land for thousands of years before European contact -- was founded in 1998 by actor and writer Guy Strauss as a home for theater, one-person shows, and readings, starting in a tent at the intersection of Noons Drive and Route 6. In 2006 it relocated to its current 110-acre site on Old Dewline Road, within what's now called the Highlands Center: the former North Truro Air Force Station, a Cold War-era Air Force Long Range Radar Site that operated from 1951 to 1994 before most of its land transferred to the National Park Service. The road name is itself a small piece of Cold War history -- "Dewline" echoes the Distant Early Warning Line the base was part of. Many original Air Force buildings on the site remain standing but in derelict condition, and NPS has stated an intent to remove most of them as funding allows; an FAA long-range radar unit still operates on part of the property today.

Payomet's founding story and its move to the former base site were independently confirmed this pass, but current-season performance schedules, ticket prices, and the tent venue's exact capacity were not pulled this session -- confirm directly at payomet.org before planning a visit.

What This Page Doesn't Cover

This page focuses on what direct research could confirm: Highland Light's corrected relocation story and its and the Highland House Museum's current visiting details, Highland Links Golf Course as the literal ground the lighthouse move crossed, Pilgrim Spring Trail and Corn Hill's Pilgrim-era history alongside Corn Hill's present life as a town beach, Truro Vineyards' 200-year farm history and Hopper connection alongside its current tasting-room hours, Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill's founding story and current workshop catalog, and Payomet Performing Arts Center's founding and its site on the former North Truro Air Force Station. It does not catalog every gallery in town, Truro's full beach list, or the town's smaller summer events. A few things are stated as open gaps rather than guessed: the exact month of Highland Light's 1996 move (Wikipedia says July, CapeCod.com says June), Truro's claim to "the Cape's oldest winery" (repeated widely, not independently cross-checked against every other Cape winery), and Payomet's current-season performance calendar and ticket pricing. Hours, fees, and dates above change from year to year -- confirm current details directly with the Truro Historical Society, Truro Vineyards, Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, Payomet Performing Arts Center, or Cape Cod National Seashore before visiting.