Their courage also made them take to the seas in incredible weather to aid the survivors of some of the famous wrecks that took place off the Aquinnah Cliffs. As further testament to their valor, a plaque on the schoolhouse commemorates the fact that Aquinnah sent more men in proportion to its size to World War I than did any other town in New England. The brilliant colors of the mile-long Aquinnah Cliffs astonished the early explorers and have continued to be a source of intense interest to the scientist as well as the visitor. The action of the seas, the glaciers, and the land itself have contorted these once-level layers into waving bands of color that stream above the sea. Time does not leave these cliffs changeless.
Erosion continues as it has for centuries, turning the seas red and revealing fossil secrets.
Pieces of lignite from the Cretaceous period are found on the beach, looking like nothing so much as the remnants of recent campfires. Fossil bones of camels and wild horses, as well as those of ancient whales, have been found in the cliffs. Because of the extremely dangerous rocky ledge offshore, this has always been a place of great peril to the mariner. One of the first revolving lighthouses in the country was erected atop the cliffs in 1799. It had wooden works, and when they became swollen in damp or cold weather, the lighthouse keeper and his wife would be obliged to stand all night and turn the light by hand to send out its white flash.