Oak Bluffs

Town in Dukes County, southeastern Massachusetts, northeast of Martha's Vineyard; population (1998 est) 3,600. It is a summer resort and ferry point for Martha's Vineyard, with tourist trade in the downtown area. Oak Bluffs flourished in the 1830s as a Methodist summer camp, and the community has dozens of small brightly decorated cottages surrounding a semi-enclosed Methodist tabernacle.

There was a large pre-colonial American Indian population here, at least seasonally. The first Europeans camped here from 1602, the first land grant dates from 1642, and the first permanent European settlement from 1667.