Tuckernuck Island

Under the sub-heading of "What Did Van Learn Today?", I have discovered information about an interesting little island - Tuckernuck Island, off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts. What got me looking up information was this quip on the inside of a Nantucket Nectars bottlecap:

"During a storm, the last remaining year-round resident of Tuckernuck Island buried himself to survive, and did."

Well ... How did he accomplish that? Coffin perhaps? He would have needed to breathe. How did he then dig himself up again?

Having never been to Nantucket, I asked myself what more I could learn about Tuckernuck Island.

According to The Fount of All Knowledge (Wikipedia), Tuckernuck Island is about 900 acres and has around 35 vacation homes on it. No more year-round residents, I guess. Supposedly, the island is privately owned by the vacation home owners. It is not open to the public. Any visitors must be invited. There are no public utilities, though they do have home-made electricity (via solar cells and gas-powered generators) and running water. They also use gas for cooking. Very few cars are used on the island, however residents do use golf carts for getting around.

Several areas have either protected or endangered flora and/or fauna, including the largest concentration of Oldsquaws (Long Tailed Duck) in the Western Atlantic. Counts of over 150,000 have been recorded. The landmass is left over from the terminal moraine of the last glacial period (Wisconsin Glaciation) and still retains characteristics of moraine geology.

Image courtesy of NOAA and iNavX

Blog source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuckernuck_Island