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This is the eighth and final painting to complete my project. It is also the last blog I’ll be posting for it. I had a few opportunities to do exhibitions but that will have to wait awhile. In the meantime I still have a compendium or catalog to write. And hopefully some online opportunities will develop when I'm done. 

I guess I saved the best for last. Ballston Beach was on the list of locations suggested to me by Mark Adams, a coastal geologist with the National Park Service at the Cape Cod National Seashore. I got more drama than I bargained for when Hurricane Dorian brushed past the Cape after days of making her way up the East Coast. There was a lot of uncertainty as to whether we would be slammed or just have to deal with a few days of bad weather. I had experienced a couple of hurricanes in my life up to that point and knew how they can ravage a coastline, so of course as soon as it was safe to venture out, the first place I wanted to put myself was at Ballston Beach.

It looked like a moonscape with debris strewn about in big dark clumps. Frothy white foam covered wet sand that swirled about in big, sweeping patterns from one end of the breach to the other facing north. The air inland hung heavy with shades of golden mist which softened the late afternoon sunlight. The pounding surf was so powerful I could feel it before I climbed over a dune and saw it. Signs and fences meant to protect the dunes were twisted and half buried in sand. Huge incoming waves threatened to pull them into the undertow. 

A Bit of History and the Changing Shape of Ballston Beach, Truro

At the end of the last ice age, Cape Cod was a lot bigger. A glacial gift. rising seas and thousands of years of erosion have eaten up much of the land and produced the bared and bent arm of Massachusetts. As seas rise, wave action over Georges Bank increases, producing ever stronger surf to pound at the shore. Erosion is what feeds the beaches, so a loss in one spot is another’s gain. In 1900 Ballston Beach was a sprawling resort complex along with homes in the dunes. Here, the ocean is about 100 yards west compared to early last century.

The following is information taken from my blog post of September 7, 2019 which featured abbreviated excerpts from an article in Cape Cod Life magazine, Sept/Oct 2015:

“For two days in February of 2013, a blizzard packing hurricane force winds pounded Cape Cod. One of the areas that suffered the most damage was Ballston Beach, a popular spot on Truro’s Atlantic-facing coastline. When high tide struck on the evening of February 8, the storm surge broke through the dunes, pushing water fro m the ocean all the way back to the Upper Pamet River Valley. Everyone who lives on the Cape watched this in shock.

What happened at Ballston is referred to as an overwash, rather than a traditional breach. According to a brochure created by the Town of Truro, a breach occurs when ocean water forces an opening in a barrier beach and is allowed to flow in and out – ocean water and sediment pour over the beach crest with no water flowing back and returning to the ocean. In an attempt to repair the damage, which included further erosion of the dune and flooding in the beach’s parking lot, the Truro Department of Public Works trucked in 4,000 cubic yards of sand from Head of the Meadow, another nearby beach in town.

According to Jay Norton, director of the Truro DPW, this did not quite solve the problem. “The dune restoration was not adequate to prevent future overwashes,” Norton says. “The height and slope were restricted by the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP).” According to the NHESP, sand brought in to rebuild the dunes could stack up to no more than eight feet in height, and the slope could measure a ratio of no more than ten to one, horizontal to vertical going away from the dune’s crest. (OK, we’re getting into the weeds here, but you can see what’s going on. Human restrictions placed on a problem caused by nature with yet another layer of human intervention.)

Then, in January 2015, Winter Storm Juno tore through the repaired dunes. The high tides, combined with strong winds, caused an overwash that once again flowed into the Upper Pamet River Valley, flooding the beach parking lot and pushing sand into the marsh. At 205 feet, this opening in the dune is even wider than that of 2013. As residents of the area are likely aware, these incidents in 2013 and 2015 are not isolated. In 1978, and again in 1991 and 1992, overwashes were recorded at Ballston with seawater mixing with the fresh water marsh system and the beach parking lot getting flooded.

As for the future of Ballston Beach, several questions have yet to be answered. “Should the barrier beach remain in its current state,” he asks. “And if so what are the consequences? Should the Town of Truro continue to do short-term repairs of the dune? How is flooding of the Pamet River Valley controlled to protect private property and town infrastructure? What is the best long-term solution?” Many of these questions are the same ones being asked by residents and officials across Cape Cod and on the Islands. And as the answers are hammered out in the coming weeks, months and years, down on the coast the beaches will continue to transform.” – Christopher Setterlund, writer, Cape Cod Life

What’s Next to Complete My Project

Writing, editing, design & layout – that’s what! 

Most likely I’ll be spending the rest of summer doing more research, pulling together my thoughts, plowing through a mountain of notes and writing. I hope to complete a nice, illustrated  compendium to accompany the eight, 16 x 20 inch watercolors. I’m looking forward to reflecting on the work I’ve accomplished over the last 9 months and to spend time revisiting those places in my dreams as I “put pen to paper”. 

This is my final blog post for this project. Thank you for taking the time to have a read. It’s been an honor to share my journey with you. Please be respectful – be kind – be safe. We’ll get through this. We have to.

As always,

Sandy