When the Pilgrims landed on Cape Cod, a small group led by Myles Standish encountered some Indians on Eastham’s bay side. After the Pilgrims had settled in at Plymouth, some of them decided to move back to the Cape, and in 1644 a group founded Nauset, which has been known as Eastham since 1651. One of the Nauset founders, Thomas Prence, governed the whole of Plymouth Colony from Eastham for a few years. Symbolic of these Plymouth-Eastham ties is the gristmill at =Windmill Park= on the west side of U.S. 6, about 2½ miles past the Orleans border. The mill was built in the 1600s in Plymouth and was reconstructed in Eastham in 1793. The mill is open during the summer and on weekends in the spring and fall (see page 47). The =Penniman House= on Fort Hill Road is symbolic of another Eastham era: the heyday of sailing ships and whaling. Edward Penniman was 11 years old in 1842 when he left Fort Hill and went to sea. By the time he was 29 he was captain of his own whaler and soon was sailing to ports around the world. He returned to Eastham in 1868 to build this ornate house complete with mansard roof, kerosene chandelier, and cupola (see page 49). The =Nauset Marsh Trail= is a loop that starts and ends at the National Seashore’s Salt Pond Visitor Center and goes past its namesake, a former glacial kettle pond that has been inundated by seawater, a salt marsh rich in wildlife, and an abandoned farmstead. =Fort Hill Trail= takes a loop through the late-18th century farmstead of Rev. Samuel Treat. You can start at either of 2 parking lots on Fort Hill Road south of the visitor center. It winds past stone walls to Skiff Hill and Fort Hill on the edge of Nauset Marsh and then past the Penniman House. The =Red Maple Swamp Trail= is a spur loop off the Fort Hill Trail. =Other places of interest=: whaling, lifesaving items, and other artifacts at the Historical Society’s Old Schoolhouse Museum opposite Salt Pond Visitor Center; Doane Rock, a glacial erratic; Coast Guard Beach and Nauset Light Beach; Three Sisters Lighthouses; local historical objects at Swift-Daley House on U.S. 6. Wellfleet The town of Wellfleet—which was a part of Eastham and called Billingsgate until 1763—is an old whaling port and still a major fishing and shellfish center on Cape Cod Bay. Some say Wellfleet got its name from being a “whale fleet” base, while others say the name came from the Wallfleet oyster beds area of England. The center of Wellfleet is small but has several restaurants, shops, art galleries, and other facilities for vacationers. The town boasts of its First Congregational Church clock that strikes ship’s time. The Massachusetts Audubon Society runs the 700-acre =Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary= west of U.S. 6 in South Wellfleet. Trails go through beach, marsh, and pine forest. It’s a good place for birdwatching.