PTown Beachcombers Find Little Treasures

Low tide can expose all kinds of treasures along the shoreline of Provincetown, which runs about 20 miles along the edges of Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. There are two low tides and two high tides in a period of approximately 25 hours. So if low tide occurs at, say, 4 PM today, tomorrow afternoon it would be just before 5PM. A tide chart will come in handy to help you choose the time for your walk along our shores. Anywhere along the beaches of Provincetown you can find seashells, pebbles, and on the edge of the harbor, sometimes bits of pottery from some of the earlier days when there were ceramics workshops in town, along with countless other little treasures.
Shells of clams, mussels, scallops and oysters, picked clean by the seagulls and other scavengers, are found in many spots. Very large clam shells are sometimes found on Race Point Beach, along the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, along with occasional lobster buoys, pieces of driftwood and other, larger gifts from the sea which sometimes wash onto the shore with the waves and tides. On rare occasions, and on calmer beaches like the shoreline of the bay or the harbor, you might find something valuable, like old coins, jewelry or other items dropped on the beach in years gone by. Bits of sea glass, the shards of broken bottles worn smooth over many years of washing in and out with the tides, are becoming quite scarce, but still turn up once in a while. And sometimes just a simple little rock with a nice design, worn small and smooth by washing up and down the beach for a couple of hundred years, is just the right keepsake to remember a special day exploring the beaches of Provincetown.