The historic Wampanoag Native American people called the area Pamet or Payomet.

Cape Cod was the territory of successive cultures of indigenous peoples for thousands of years before Europeans arrived.

At the time of English colonization, the Wampanoag tribe was the dominant one on Cape Cod, numbering about 7,000 by early accounts.

The English Pilgrims stopped in Truro and Provincetown in 1620 as their original choice for a landing before later deciding the area to be unsuitable.

Historians debate the accuracy of the account about the latter discovery, but in popular lore it led to the place being called Corn Hill.

Truro was settled by English immigrant colonists in the 1690s as the northernmost portion of the town of Eastham.

These industries had to shift to other locations as the harsh tides of the Lower Cape reduced the town's main port in the 1850s.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Cape Cod was a popular location for artists because of its light.

Today, Truro is one of the more exclusive towns on the Cape, noted for its affluent residences and the rolling hills and dunes along the coast.

[4] The old town cemetery was the location of the murders in 1969 of Susan Perry, Patricia Walsh, Sydney Monzon and Mary Anna Wysocki by Tony Costa.

The topography generally slopes downward from the Atlantic to Cape Cod Bay, and from south to north.

The plant hardiness zone is 7a, with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of 4.0 °F (−15.6 °C).

The average snowiest month is February, which corresponds to the annual peak in nor'easter activity.

On the national level, Truro is a part of Massachusetts's 9th congressional district, and is currently represented by Bill Keating.

[22] Cape Cod Times states that normally Nauset secondary schools are the destinations of students above grade 6.

There is no rail or air service in the town; the nearest regional airport is located in neighboring Provincetown.

In Men in Black II (2002), Truro was the town to which Tommy Lee Jones' character "Agent K" retired, becoming a postal worker.

Off Head of the Meadow beach on the Atlantic side of Truro lies the wreck of the three-masted barque Frances.