Bourne is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 18,721 at the 2000 census. Bourne was first settled in 1640 as a part of the town of Sandwich. It was officially incorporated in 1884 as the last town to be incorporated in Barnstable County. It was named for Jonathan Bourne, whose father, Richard Bourne, served in the Massachusetts General Court at the time of settlement, as well as helping to found the settlement in Mashpee. The town lies at the northeast corner of Buzzards Bay, and is the site of Aptucxet Trading Post, the nation's oldest store. It was founded by the Pilgrims in 1627 at a site halfway between the two rivers which divided the Cape from the rest of the state. It was out of this location that the Cape Cod Canal was formed, in order to save time and lives by eliminating the need to sail around the hazardous eastern shores of Cape Cod. Because of the canal, Bourne is now considered the "first" town on the Cape, as all three bridges (the Bourne, Sagamore and the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge all are located within the town. Also, due to the Canal, the town is divided, the majority of land lying on the Cape. Bourne is also the site of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, a maritime college located at the southern mouth of the canal on the western shore.

Otis Air National Guard Base is also partially located in the town. Bourne is bordered by Sandwich to the east, Falmouth to the south, Buzzards Bay and Wareham to the west, and Plymouth, MA and Cape Cod Bay to the north. The town lies approximately twenty miles west of Barnstable, fifty-five miles south-southeast of Boston, and equidistantly from Providence, Rhode Island. The border with Plymouth, MA and Wareham in Plymouth, MA County constitutes the only landed border between Barnstable County and any other county (the borders with Dukes and Nantucket lie in Nantucket Sound). Major localities of Bourne include Bournedale, Buzzards Bay, Cataumet, Monument Beach, Pocasset, and Sagamore, amongst others.

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