Martha’s Vineyard history (with some surprises)

By Nicole Galland

There’s a lot of history packed into this little Island, going all the way back to before it was even an island. Martha’s Vineyard (and its sister island, Nantucket, which is really mostly a sandbar) were formed from glacial moraine – i.e., the rubble left behind by a melting glacier. Or so say geologists. The Wampanoag Indians, who were here much earlier, say that it was formed by the creator god Moshup walking across what became Vineyard Sound — water filled the depression of his moccasins, rendering an island, called Noepe, which is translatable to “the island amidst the streams.”