Cape Cod; 'A man may stand there and put all America behind him.'

So wrote Henry David Thoreau as he recorded his impressions on one of several trips he made to Cape Cod in the mid 1800s. At that time "them Cape" as it has become affectionately known to possessive New Englanders was but a "wild and rank place" to many -- even Thoreau. Nevertheless he was convinced that the time would come when this "bared and bended arm of Massachusetts" would become "a place of resort." On any given day this summer the Cape's numbers will swell three and a half times its year round population of 140,000 as tourists from across the country come here for a week or even just a few days to put their busy worlds behind them.