Historic Sites in Nantucket County

History of Nantucket County

Nantucket County is the island of Nantucket and its neighbors, about thirty miles south of Cape Cod. It was incorporated in 1695, and the town and county share the same borders. The Wampanoag lived here long before English settlers bought rights to the island in 1659.

Quaker whaling families made Nantucket the center of American whaling in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Their cobblestone Main Street, captains' houses and meeting houses survive, with the downtown rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1846. The whole island was designated a National Historic Landmark district in 1966. Brant Point and Sankaty Head (1850) lighthouses still mark the way in.