Introduction to Bourne

4 miles W of Sagamore; 16 miles NW of Hyannis

Bourne, with seven villages, hugs Buzzards Bay on both sides of the Cape Cod Canal. The town has changed quite a bit since President Grover Cleveland moved to Bourne more than 100 years ago. Evidently attracted by the trout, he decided to set up his summer White House at Monument Beach in the 1890s. That house is long gone, but one vestige -- his personal train station -- is on view at the Aptucxet Trading Post Museum, a reconstructed version of this country's first place of commerce, where Pilgrims traded with Native Americans and the Dutch. Also visible from here -- and from the Cape Cod Canal bike path, which runs right past the post -- is the intriguing Vertical Lift Railroad Bridge (built in 1935); its track moves up or down to permit the passage, respectively, of ships or trains. Cataumet, with its winding roads, is the most upscale village in Bourne. The village of Buzzards Bay, its somewhat dingy Main Street paralleling the canal, has most of the shops.