Sagamore Beach is a village of Bourne, Massachusetts fronting Cape Cod Bay and the east end of the Cape Cod Canal. Along with Buzzards Bay, it is one of only two communities in Barnstable County that are north of the Cape Cod Canal.
Sagamore Beach is a largely a residential area with a small commercial district near the Sagamore Bridge and Massachusetts Route 3A. A central recreation area provides tennis courts and sports fields. Parking and access to the Cape Cod Canal service road are available on Canal Road. Sagamore Beach also adjoins Scusset Beach State Reservation.
Recent development in the 2000s include a new post office, fire station and several subdivisions.
When the Mayflower arrived in Plymouth just north of here, there were about 30 Native American tribes in southeastern Massachusetts. The Wampanoag people were the principal tribe of this area[1]. A heavily used trail crossed the area, used by tribes to reach the eastern reaches of Cape Cod. The trail, later widened by white settlers, became the main artery to Cape Cod and roughly followed what is now Massachusetts Route 6A. In honor of those who came before, titles used to name the streets and roads in Sagamore Beach include; Tecumseh, Siasconset, Sachem, Scusset, Manomet, Indian Trail, Indian Hill, and Fox Run. sagamore and sachem are Native American leadership titles.
Although initially a village of Sandwich, in 1884 Sandwich was divided to create the town of Bourne. The dredging for the Cape Cod Canal had already begun and Sagamore Beach became a village of Bourne. Although the area was settled by Europeans as early as 1637, the population greatly increased in 1905 when the Christian Endeavor Society founded a summer colony here.[2] Victorian homes built on the bluffs in that era still grace the shoreline and the Sagamore Beach Colony Club established then continues as a community resource today[3].