Arthur J. “Art” Costa (1921-2006), a Provincetown native, founded Art’s Dune Tours in 1946 after he returned — with a Purple Heart — from serving with the Army in the Italian Theater during World War II. He was in the bloody and extremely costly Battle for Monte Cassino, about 75 miles east-southeast of Rome. He was wounded twice by shrapnel from mortar fire. Back home, the family obit said: “He opened his business with a 1936 Ford Woody. In the off-season, he would deliver oil for Cape Cod Oil. At the time he turned the business over to his son, he had built it up to include a number of dune taxis and employees. But his fervor for the environment never wavered. He took a great deal of pride educating his customers, both the famous and ordinary, about the fragile ecology and mystical beauty of Provincetown’s dunes.”
Arthur Costa and his Ford Woody. [Salvador R. Vasques III / My Provincetown Memorabilia Collection]
In memoriam
• Find a Grave Memorial No. 52418472.
• Provincetown’s Historic Cemeteries and Memorials, by Amy Whorf McGuiggan, Memorial No. 48.
¶ Last updated on 11 December 2021.