Truro Attractions

The first wooden Highland Light was erected in 1797 to stop the shipwrecks piling up off Truro shores, believed to be the most deadly along Cape Cod. The light was the first to shine from the Cape.

The federal government built the first Truro lighthouse on 10 acres of land bought from Isaac Small for $110. Small was the first keeper of the lighthouse, which had a 30-second revolving rotation to distinguish it from Boston Light. The wooden lighthouse was replaced with a brick lighthouse in 1831, though the ominous sea continued to battle it until the Cape Cod Canal opened in 1914, allowing ships to avoid Truro.

“…Sometimes more than a dozen wrecks are visible from this point at one time. The inhabitants hear the crash of vessels going to pieces as they sit round their hearths…,” Henry David Thoreau wrote in his 1865 book, “Cape Cod.”

In the 1990s, the battle was erosion, with Highland Light – also called Cape Cod Light – moving closer and closer to the ocean. But to the relief of many, the two never touched, thanks to fund-raising by the Truro Historical Society along with state and federal grants, which allowed the light to be moved back 450 feet in 1996.

Today, the public can take lighthouse tours and take in the 80-foot tall beacon's expansive views. The old keeper's house also holds a gift shop.

Open daily mid-May – mid-October, 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Home to the Truro Historical Society, the Highland House Museum holds displays on the town’s past, fishing exploits and the railroad, along with paintings by Truro Historical Society founder Courtney Allen. Furnishings aside, the house is a museum in and of itself. It opened in 1907 as the Highland Resort, a premier Cape Cod destination, despite advertising 55 rooms but only one bathroom. But $8 was all it cost for a week of glorious sunsets.

Open June 1 – Sept. 30, Mon. – Sat. 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Sun. 1 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Jenny Lind Tower

Singer Jenny Lind – also known as “The Swedish Nightingale” – hit the United States with unprecedented fanfare in the late 1800s, with fans even naming a California town after her, though she had never set foot in the state. 

In Massachusetts, she left her mark in 1850 when one of her concerts oversold in Boston and she tried to make it up to fans by singing for free atop a 55-foot stone tower next to her hotel. In 1927, with the hotel slated for demolition, Boston attorney Harry Aldrich bought the tower and meticulously moved it stone by stone to his land off Highland Road in Truro. The tower can be seen from Highland Links Golf Course.