Just after noon on August 10, The Lobster Pound, a fixture at Manomet point since 1963, reopened its doors for the first time since 2023. Owned and operated by the Collins family for 60 years, a family illness forced the 2023 closure. Two young local entrepreneurs, Tim Mahoney, 34, and Ryan Belval, 27, are the […]
Author Archives: Peter Zheutlin - Independent Correspondent
Posted inBusiness
A challenging but ‘priceless’ life of a lobsterman
A lot has changed since Tom O’Reilly threw his first lobster pot in the ocean more than four decades ago. Back then he was using wooden traps which had to be laden with rocks so they would sink to the sea floor. Once the wood became waterlogged the rocks were no longer needed, but they […]
Posted inCulture
‘It’s the wind. It’s the damned wind’
Second of two parts In late May, Plymouth oystermen Don Wilkinson and Sean Withington, receive the “seeds,” or spat — tiny juvenile oysters each no larger than a grain of sand — that will in two to three years become oysters ready for market. Shipped overnight from a supplier in Maine, the 2.4 million seeds […]
Posted inCulture
‘Nature is your boss’
First of two parts Oysterman Don Wilkinson of Plymouth looks the part. The towering 83-year-old has been raising oysters in Cape Cod Bay for 16 years now and has the rugged, wizened look you might expect in a man who has spent many hours on the water in all kinds of weather. Piercing pale green […]
Posted inCulture
Grace Trail inspires introspection
During the darkest days of his life, Chris Carazas, 41, of Kingston found daylight while walking along Grace Trail in Plymouth. Grace Trail is a section of the rail trail variously known as the Seaside Trail, the Plymouth Seaside Grace Trail, and the North Plymouth Rail Trail, that runs from downtown north for about a […]
Posted inCulture
‘Most walkable’ town, says Boston Magazine
(This column has been edited to address an incorrect assertion that Massachusetts Audubon’s Tidmarsh Wildlife Sanctuary was the first cranberry bog in the nation restored to its natural state.) I was sitting in my dentist’s office in Needham the other day flipping through the latest issue of Boston Magazine, the annual “Top Places to Live” […]
Posted inEnvironment & Health
He’s responsible for more than 100 square miles of water
Chad Hunter covers a lot of ground in his job. Make that water. As Plymouth’s harbormaster, Hunter’s domain is larger than you might think. It extends well beyond what’s visible from atop Coles Hill. Three miles out to sea from any land point in Plymouth and all its many ponds are within his jurisdiction. That’s […]
Posted inCulture
What a difference a year makes
When I moved to Plymouth a little less than a year ago, the Independent asked me to write a series of columns. The charge was to explore the town from a newcomer’s perspective. From Buttermilk Bay in the town’s far southwest corner to Saquish, its most northeasterly point, I wandered through preserves and along paths, […]
Posted inBusiness
One man’s wish list for downtown and the waterfront
I’ve lived in Plymouth for just over nine months now and have taken quite a shine to my new town. It’s been full of pleasant surprises, and writing this column has encouraged me toexplore more than I might have otherwise. When I’ve had visitors from out of town they’re always surprised when I take them […]
Posted inCulture
Making a trek to Oliver Neck. (Yes, it’s in Plymouth.)
In 1928, Doubleday published “The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod,” by the naturalist Henry Beston. It became a classic of nature literature. Beston drew up the plans for a small beach cottage in 1925, intending to use it occasionally. He soon found he didn’t want to leave […]