Provincetown-officially incorporated in June 1727-grew as a whaling and fishing center, and its economy boomed in the wake of the American Revolution. Specifically, in November 1620, having sighted Cape Cod en route to Virginia and facing impossible conditions on the winter seas, the Mayflower Pilgrims returned to Provincetown Harbor and set anchor it was here that they wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact. Even before William Bradford purchased what colonists dubbed Cape Cod from the Nauset Tribe in 1654 (for two brass kettles, six coats, twelve hoes, twelve knives, and a box), the area now known as Provincetown played an essential role in colonial history. Happy Carnival, P-Town!! Picture: Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps, Carnival, Provincetown, Massachusetts, August 1981.
