Since 1970, the year-round population of Martha’s Vineyard has more than doubled, far outpacing the rate of growth in Massachusetts and that of the United States. According to census figures, the Vineyard population increased by 271 people between 1960 and 1970. Between 1970 and 1980, it increased by 2,845.
Growth has continued since then, but the influx of people was never as great as the wave that crested here in the 1970s. The baby boomer generation was on the move, and the nature of the Vineyard was changing.
People came to the Vineyard, and stayed on the Vineyard because they could do what they loved.
Here, a look back at many of the faces of the first wave of counterculture change on the Vineyard, and how those same faces have changed throughout the years.