New Marconi Trail Opens With Ribbon Cutting

CHATHAMPORT – A tract of coastal woodlands by Ryder’s Cove restored as a conservation area was ceremonially opened last Thursday, about 25 years after the town acquired the land.

The Marconi-RCA Conservation Trail officially opened with a ribbon cutting held by stakeholders in the effort to develop the three-acre space into a recreational site with a walking trail. The area — across Orleans Road from the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center — abuts Ryder’s Cove, and the new trail has views of the water.

Before the ribbon cutting, Michele Moloney-Kitts said she was “representing one of the most fabulous partnerships that you could ever imagine that has helped create this fabulous space here.”

“The thing that I really loved the most about this project is that it really brings together the best of Chatham and the Cape because here we have the convergence of history and nature and coastline, all in the same place, and it’s rare that we have that opportunity to really preserve and celebrate,” she said.

A three-year restoration project beginning in 2021 funded by the Community Preservation Act and local partners worked to remove invasive plants and restore native vegetation at the site, according to a press release. 

Barbara Cotnam, who for 20 years led the effort to create the Marconi-RCA Conservation Trail, cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony, attended by about 40 people.

“It really is a whole congregation of people who have the same thing in mind and got this done,” she said.

Select Board Vice Chair Jeffrey Dykens said it was because of Cotnam’s “perseverance and her vision” that they stood there Thursday. The site is called the Marconi-RCA Conservation Trail, but it’s really the Barbara Cotnam Trail, he said.

“It really is just a delight to be here to see this happen,” Dykens said.   

The land, originally belonging to the Monomoyick Wampanoag people, was a recreation area for the staff of the Marconi-RCA Wireless Receiving Station from 1914 until the 1990s, the release said.

Bob Fishback, president of the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center, said he was “glad to see it put back to a useful purpose as a recreation area after all this time.”

“This project has resulted in a most welcome addition to the campus,” he said. “I think it will be enjoyed for many decades to come.”

After the ribbon cutting, attendees walked the new trail, a loop that follows the coastal bank along the cove. There are benches, picnic tables and a double-sided kiosk that explains the site’s history — of the Marconi-RCA station — on one panel and some of its natural conditions as a restored coastal woodland on the other.

For example, there’s a herring run on the far end of Ryder’s Cove, which is part of the Pleasant Bay estuary, the largest on Cape Cod, and the bed of Ryder’s Cove contains eelgrass meadows, according to the information on the kiosk. The woodlands have native tree species like eastern red cedar, white oak and pitch pine.

“This spot is really special,” Moloney-Kitts said.

The Marconi-RCA Wireless Receiving Station was once the busiest ship-to-shore radio station of the 1900s, according to the release. Still standing at the site are two wireless towers, which now host osprey nesting platforms. Restoration work on the towers is planned for this year, according to the release.