About Nantucket Massachusetts (courtesy of Wkipedia)

Nantucket is an island south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the United States. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the town of Nantucket, Massachusetts on a portion of Nantucket Island and the coextensive Nantucket County, which covers all three islands. The region of Surfside on Nantucket is the southernmost settlement in Massachusetts.

Nantucket is a tourist destination and summer colony. The population of the island soars from approximately 10,000 to 50,000 during the summer months, due to tourists and summer residents. It has some of the highest property values in Massachusetts.

The National Park Service has designated the entire island as a National Historic District, paying particular note to the towns of Nantucket and Siasconset. The island features one of the highest concentration of pre-Civil War structures in the United States.

Nantucket was part of Dukes County, New York until 1691, when it was transferred to Massachusetts as a separate county.

Nantucket was formerly the world's leading whaling port (and still serves as home port for a small fishing industry). Herman Melville comments on Nantucket's whaling dominance in Moby Dick, Chapter 14: "Two thirds of this terraqueous globe are the Nantucketer's. For the sea is his; he owns it, as Emperors own empires."

By the Civil War, whaling was in decline and the island suffered great economic hardships, worsened by the 1846 "Great Fire" that, fueled by whale oil and lumber, devastated the main town, burning some 36 acres. It left hundreds homeless and poverty stricken, and many people left.

As a result the island depopulated and was left under-developed and isolated until the mid-20th century. The isolation kept many of the pre-Civil War buildings intact and by the 1950s, enterprising developers began buying up large sections of the island and restoring them to create an upmarket destination for the wealthy in the Northeastern United States. This highly controlled development can be compared to neighboring Martha's Vineyard, whose development served as a model for what the developers of Nantucket were trying to avoid.

On July 25, 1956, 51 people were killed in the collision of the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria with the SS Stockholm in heavy fog 45 miles south of Nantucket.

In 1977, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard unsuccessfully attempted to secede from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The secession vote was sparked by a proposed change to the Massachusetts Constitution, which reduced the islands' representation in the state legislature.

On October 31, 1999, EgyptAir Flight 990 traveling from New York City to Cairo crashed off the coast of Nantucket, killing all 217 on board.

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