SANDWICH, Mass. — A Sandwich couple committed to finding the missing planks that blew off their historic town boardwalk during last week’s blizzard relocated the sentimental pieces engraved with loved ones’ names.
Devastated by the destruction, Katie and Brian Stanton went searching in the frigid salt marsh with only an idea of where the nor’easter might have blown the planks based on the wind direction and tide.
They got permission from a local homeowner to access the marsh from a nearby road and began finding debris about a quarter-mile from the Sandwich Boardwalk.
“Within probably five minutes, I was jumping up and down screaming. And they’re like, ‘What the heck is going on?’” Katie recalled. “I thought it was a little piece because it was mostly covered in snow, and when I got up to it, I kept looking. It was a good size.”
That portion of the structure was about 40 to 50 feet, Katie estimated before her husband located an even larger section.
“I didn’t even see it until I was four feet away, a 150-foot section just hidden in the marsh,” Brian said. “We were just high-fiving and walking in the marsh. Everyone’s soaked. I had cuts all over me.”
Soon after Katie posted on Facebook about their find and the approximate location, several residents arrived with tools hoping to extract their families’ planks.
The Sandwich Boardwalk was built in 1875 and was rebuilt several times due to storm damage. Thirty years ago, the reconstruction was a labor of love by local volunteers and funded by families whose loved ones’ names are inscribed in the planks.
The boardwalk provides not only beach access but also a rite of passage for local kids to jump off the bridge and into the water each summer. Lawn chairs line the edge of the water, and friends and family cheer on those thrill-seekers.
“It’s the heart of the town. I mean, everyone loves it,” Katie said. “People come here to see the boardwalk. To not have that is tragic.”
But in a controversial decision and narrow vote by the local board of selectmen, the iconic boardwalk will be demolished and replaced next year with a stronger structure that will withstand future storms and climate change and be in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Candy Thomson, who is part of the grassroots group Friends of the Sandwich Boardwalk, has opposed the demolition of the structure and new plans many feel are too much a departure from their quaint, old boardwalk.
Thomson hopes the town will decide to repair the damaged boardwalk, even if the old structure is only around for another summer or two.
“People propose here, people get married here, people’s ashes are spread from that bridge,” Thomson said. “It’s so community. It’s so small. It’s so from the heart. That’s why people rightfully just care what happens to it.”
But Selectman David Sampson told Boston 25 News repairing the damage would be too extensive and likely require hundreds of thousands of dollars, all for a temporary solution.
“I know there’s some hope in the community that those structures could just be put back where they were before,” Sampson said of the relocated planks. “But given the level of deterioration and the pilings that sit below the boardwalk, it’s almost impossible for that to happen.”
Plans for reconstruction have been delayed by federal and state permitting, funding challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic, among other factors, Sampson said.
“At the current time, I think our best path is to make the structure safe and hopefully accessible in some form,” Sampson said. “Specifically, the bridge that crosses the creek, so that jumping can occur during the summer.”
Sampson said the town is figuring out a plan to remove the huge structures the Stantons found and return individual planks to families.
State representatives are also pledging their support. Local contractors and citizens have offered to help, the board of selectmen said at Thursday night’s meeting.
Regardless of the future of the boardwalk, the Stantons are glad families will soon be reunited with their special pieces of history.
“Everyone has a memory,” Katie said. “Whether you own a plank or not, it’s a piece of us.”
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