Artists and writers lived in the primitive dune shacks, including Harry Kemp who proclaimed himself "the Poet of the Dunes,"[2] Jack Kerouac, e. e. cummings, Norman Mailer, and Jackson Pollock.[1] The shacks have never had electricity, plumbing or running water.[1]
Writers who wrote about the dune shacks, besides Thoreau, included Henry Beston whose The Outermost House chronicles a season spent living in the dune shacks and Hazel Hawthorne-Werner who wrote Salt House about her year in 1929 in the dunes.
Today there are 19 dune shacks in the historic district, 18 of which are owned by the National Park Service. Private individuals are able to enter a lottery for an opportunity to reside for a period of time in the shacks. The only way to tour the Dune Shacks is through Art's Dune Tours in Provincetown.
