By way of email introduction my name is Lauree Cameron Eckler and I was born and raised in Gloucester, attended Plum Cove, Beeman, Fuller, O’Malley and GHS. As you know a great place to grow up and some of my closest and most well-respected friends are those I grew up with and shared many an adventure with on Cape Ann. A good friend of mine Rob Mirak has been encouraging me to reach out to you for a long time. Rob and I are both transplants to Concord/Carlisle but both love to talk about home J and our daughters have become great friends. Most of my family still lives on Cape Ann…my sister owns Sand Castles clothing store in Rockport.
A couple of years ago, I decided to pursue one of the many things on my list…the fact that Cape Ann needed its own brand…similar to Black Dog or even better Beetlebung on Martha’s Vineyard. I wanted to develop a lifestyle brand that celebrated the history of Cape Ann and the natives who first made Cape Ann their home and the many adventurers who landed on our shores. The brand we finally decided upon was Tragabigzanda as it was the last name given to Cape Ann by John Smith before Prince Charles (with permission of King James of England) changed the name to Cape Ann after his mother Queen Anne of Denmark). In doing this research, I realized that I really didn’t know all of the history and the many names that Cape Ann was before it was Cape Ann and I realized there are many natives, current residents and tourists who don’t know either.
Our hang tags tell a bit of the story as does our website www.tragabigzandacapeann.com …and we will begin to feature bit and pieces of the story and legends on our FB page and through pictures on Instagram. We are having lots of fun designing our practical and super comfortable Tragabigzanda apparel & accessories. We currently sell our Tragabigzanda products on line, at Sand Castles in Rockport and at the Annisquam Exchange during the summer months and hope to continue to expand our line and eventually open a store on Cape Ann.
Good Morning Gloucester 
Excellent checked out the web site and very neat have the history down pat too! I will pass along to transplants your web site also. 🙂 Dave & Kim 🙂 Across the big Pond now! Laneville MA 1957-1968… 2 years in Somerville.
Source: United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service
National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Multiple Property Submission Historic and Archaeological Resources of
£ 5 Gloucester (Essex County)
Contact Period: ca. 1500-1623
The Pawtucket group of American Indians inhabited Gloucester during the period of initial European contact. Occupying an area from Salem, Mass., in the south to the vicinity of York, Maine, in the north, this group was locally referred to as the Agawam or Naumkeag Indians. Native Americans were probably attracted to the Gloucester area by the same resources that later interested the Europeans: an abundance of freshwater and ocean fish, shellfish, sea mammals, and birds.
A number of early European explorers Cap! Bartholomew Gosnold, Capt. Martin Pring, and Capt. John Smith among them are known to have sailed by Cape Ann. The first documented landing of Europeans, however, was made by Samuel de Champlain, who landed on Cape Ann twice (1605 and 1606) in his explorations of North America. Champlain favorably described its harbor as “spacious, well-protected, with good depth of harbor, surrounded by attractive scenery.” (Windsor (vol. IV): 112) In bestowing the name of “Le Beau Port,” Champlain first recognized Gloucester’s naturally deep harbor, which proved to be its greatest economic asset. Champlain found between 200 and 300 Native Americans living on Cape Ann, and in his map of the area described frequent settlements with wigwams and corn fields
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