Bourne MA

The town of Bourne is located in the northwest corner of the Upper Cape. It became a settlement in 1627 as part of the town of Sandwich. In 1884, Bourne became its own township.

President Grover Cleveland was a regular summer resident around this time. It is made up of nine villages that run along Buzzard’s Bay on the west side of the Cape and on both sides of the Cape Cod Canal. The villages are Bourne Village, Bournedale, Sagamore Beach, Sagamore, Pocasset, Gray Gables, Buzzard’s Bay, Cataumet, and Monument Beach.

It is mainly a rural community, with a mixture of year-round and summer residents. The throng of summer vacationers is less prevalent in Bourne than in other towns on the Cape, making it a desirable destination for those who want to “get away from it all”.

The Cape Cod Canal is 17 ½ miles long and was opened in 1914. Sport fishing is excellent on the canal and visitors to the Herring Run Visitor Center on the mainland side of the canal or the Tidal Flats Recreation Area on the Cape side of Bourne can get an excellent view of ships from all over the world passing through the canal on their way to their ports of call.
There are bike paths and hiking trails, scuba diving and even a very reasonably priced ice skating arena ($2 admission charge). Monument Beach, which opens onto Buzzard’s Bay, is small but pretty, though at times parking is only open to those people with resident permits.

The Army Corps of Engineers hosts free programs in the summer to educate visitors and residents alike on the canal, complete with campfires on the beach and roasted marshmallows. With “nightlife” choices such as Thursday evening town band concerts, college baseball with the Bourne Braves and the annual Bourne Scallop Festival, Bourne is a perfect spot for a quiet vacation away from the more “popular”, and crowded destinations in the Northeast.