Editorial: Nantucket's Modern Crisis

Nantucket's Modern Crisis.

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NANTUCKET HAS GONE THROUGH a number of economic crises during thepast 300 years of its existence, but it has remained for modern times to bring out one of the most unusual of all its problems. The period of its present difficulties has nothing to do with business depression or a sudden loss of revenue. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Our modern crisis is triggered by the juggernaut of progress, too much of the real estate market's workings, on the heels of over-development, and new building in all parts of the island.

The broad expanse of Nantucket Sound, over the years, has long protected Nantucket against the modern trends, but no longer may this stretch of water, like an ancient moat, protect us like a castle of old against the vagaries of the times. The encroachments of modern life, in a strong economic and social complex, have reached across the intervening water to touch us. The present situation lies in the unrelenting search for the land, the greed of the developers, and the real estate exploiters who seek their advantage through advertising. The overbuilding of the environs of the town have overcome the landscape. Now into the picture come the public rights; the rights of the landowner to do what he wishes with his property; water supply, pollution, ecology, traffic, and the natural resources of the land.

The town owes a debt to the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, the Land Bank and the Historical Association for rescuing certain tracts of land, and the Town of Nantucket has recently acquired the Wannacomet Water Company's land to prevent its exploitation. There is still much to be done to preserve the outlying land from development.

What has made possible Nantucket's preservation of the outlying lands to date no longer applies to the future. The rolling heath, the sweep of bayberry and beachplum, the pine thickets, the curving beachland, with the white sands binding the greens of the commons — all are now endangered. These are a legacy of the past, and in a physical sense are necessary guarantees for the future. In preserving these aspects we are preserving as well an economy which has sustained us over the centuries.

Nantucket has a role in the unique modern world. The United States needs places like Nantucket, where the past serves as a symbol of the vitality which helped us build our nation. In establishing their insular kingdom in the sea, Nantucket created an American legend, in which its example established a freedom of enterprise. We must emulate our ancestors by preserving the visable evidences of their island world.. -Edouard A. Stackpole