Before construction of the canal, Bournedale was a sleepy Cape Cod village with a post office, village hall, general store, and its own industry, the Tahanto Iron Works. The finest home in the village was the Old Nye Estate, where William Nye, town clerk of Bourne, surrounded his home with orchards and pastures. Occasional apple and hawthorn trees remained as remnants of this estate after it was displaced by an expanded canal and highway. At the heart of the village stood the Bournedale Railroad Station, where steam engines whistled and bellowed smoke while passengers awaited passage down Cape or to the major cities of the East. Today the swirling currents of the canal carry marine traffic over the site of the Nye home and the Bournedale Station.