About Nantucket

About the Island of Nantucket
Nantucket is an island 30 miles (50 km) south of Cape Cod, in the American state of Massachusetts. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town of Nantucket, and the coterminous Nantucket County, which are consolidated. As of the 2010 census, the population was 10,172 making it the least-populous county in Massachusetts. Part of the town is designated the Nantucket CDP, or census-designated place. The region of Surfside on Nantucket is the southernmost settlement in Massachusetts.

The name, Nantucket, is adapted from similar Algonquian names for the island, perhaps meaning “faraway land or island.”

Nantucket is a tourist destination and summer colony. The population of the island increases to about 60,000 during the summer months, due to tourists and seasonal residents.

Nantucket became a designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1966, noted as the “finest surviving architectural and environmental example of a late 18th- and early 19th-century New England seaport town.” (Source: Wikipedia)

Island Maps
Find various Nantucket town maps and island conservation organizations that can help you find your way around the island on foot, by bike, bus or car. Explore them and enjoy them!

• Nantucket Islands Land Bank
• Nantucket Conservation Foundation
• NRTA/The WAVE (seasonal shuttle bus)
• Town maps