The island of Martha’s Vineyard lies 7 miles east off the coast of Cape Cod. It is 9 miles wide and 23 miles long at its furthest points and has a total land area of about 100 square miles. Martha’s Vineyard has 124.6 miles of tidal shoreline.

Martha’s Vineyard is part of the County of Dukes County, which also includes the Elizabeth Islands and Noman’s Land. There are seven towns in Dukes County — the six Vineyard towns and the town of Gosnold on Cuttyhunk Island, the most southerly of the Elizabeth Islands. The population of Martha’s Vineyard is approximately 14,300 year-round and 105,750 during the summer.

There are six towns on Martha’s Vineyard, three up-island towns — Aquinnah, Chilmark (which includes Menemsha), and West Tisbury — and three down-island towns — Vineyard Haven, Oak Bluffs, and Edgartown (which includes Chappaquiddick). The terms up-island and down-island originated as nautical references to degrees of longitude on navigational maps but have evolved to become part of island culture and tend reflect the “state of mind” of these areas. More