COHASSET

town (township), Norfolk county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies along Massachusetts Bay, about 20 miles (30 km) southeast of Boston. Captain John Smith supposedly landed there in 1614, and the site, settled about 1647, was a part of Hingham until its incorporation in 1770. The name is a contraction of the Algonquian word Quonohassit (Conohasset), probably meaning rocky promontory or high place. Now a popular resort and yachting centre, its early economic mainstays were cod and mackerel fishing and farming. The town is the home of the South Shore Music Circus, featuring Broadway players. Numerous shipwrecks on the coast resulted in construction of the first permanent U.S. lifeboat station (1807) on Pleasant Beach, with boats operated by volunteer crews. An offshore lighthouse at Minot's Ledge was built in 1850 but destroyed in a gale in April 1851; the present Minot's Ledge Lighthouse has been maintained since 1860. According to the 11th edition (1911) of Encyclopdia Britannica, The tower, which is 89 ft. in height, is built of granite upon a reef off Boston Harbor, Mass., and occupied five years in construction, being completed in 1860 at a cost of 62,500. The rock just bares at low water. The stones are dovetailed vertically. The shape of the tower is a conical frustum. Area 10 square miles (26 square km). Pop. (1990) 7,075; (1996 est.) 7,070.