Cape Palmas is the rocky headland that forms Harper's southern tip and gives it its commanding setting. A lighthouse warns ships off the shoals in the surrounding waters, and the view from the cape — ocean on three sides, the Hoffman River estuary behind — is spectacular. The cape sits on a peninsula connected to the mainland by a sandy isthmus, and the contrast between the pounding Atlantic surf on the exposed sides and the calmer waters of the estuary is striking.
The name comes from the oil palms that once lined the shore. The cape was well known to European traders and navigators from the fifteenth century onward, and its strategic position at the corner of the continent made it a natural site for the colony that would become Harper. Walking out to the lighthouse on the point is the best way to understand why this particular stretch of coast attracted so much attention.