Peter Simon # edged as the birthplace of American Sign Language. Head to the Chilmark Flea The “Up-Island” pastoral town of Chilmark on Saturday mornings for DID YOU KNOW... Chilmark was named after the Vineyard’s founding father Thomas Mayhew’s neighboring English town and was settled in the mid-1600s. The first crop the farmers had to harvest was rocks. They put them in piles first, then stacked them in long low walls along their property to mark the boundaries. The walls Charlie Utz an eclectic mix of the old and the new, or make a special trip to Menemsha (top) for the freshest seafood, some fishing, or spread your blanket on the beach to catch mother nature’s glorious sunsets - the perfect end to an Island day. I DID YOU KNOW... Due to a recessive gene, in the mid-19th century, one in four babies born in Chilmark was deaf. Rather than become isolated, the entire community, both deaf and hearing, learned to sign by hand. When the first school for the deaf was built in Connecticut in 1817, Chilmark children were among its first students and remained the only large group at the school. The Island children brought with them their Vineyard sign language, and their colloquialisms blended into the formal sign being taught. The result evolved into American Sign Language. Vineyarders demonstrating Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language. Photo courtesy - New England Historical Society 2019 -20 Travel Guide 25 also served to keep out wild animals and protect their domesticated animals. From “Tommy’s Tour of the Vineyard” by Thomas Dresser, a written tour of the Vineyard available in bookstores locally. TOWNS
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