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Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area

Coordinates: 42°19′7″N 70°56′45″W / 42.31861°N 70.94583°W / 42.31861; -70.94583
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area
Spectacle Island, in Boston Harbor, and part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. Behind Spectacle Island is Thompson Island.
Map showing the location of Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area
Map showing the location of Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area
Map showing the location of Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area
Map showing the location of Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area
LocationNorfolk, Plymouth, and Suffolk counties, Massachusetts
Nearest cityBoston, Massachusetts
Coordinates42°19′7″N 70°56′45″W / 42.31861°N 70.94583°W / 42.31861; -70.94583
Area1,482 acres (6.00 km2)[1]
EstablishedNovember 12, 1996
Governing bodyBoston Harbor Islands Partnership which includes the National Park Service together with other federal, state, city, and nonprofit agencies.
WebsiteBoston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area

The Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area is a national recreation area situated among the islands of Boston Harbor of Boston, Massachusetts. The park is made up of 34 islands and peninsulas[2][3] and is managed by the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership.[4] It includes the Boston Harbor Islands State Park, managed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Twenty-one of the islands are also included in the Boston Harbor Islands Archeological District.

Attractions include hiking trails, beaches, the Civil War-era Fort Warren, and Boston Light, the oldest lighthouse station in the United States.[5] Georges Island and Spectacle Island are served seasonally by ferries to and from Boston, and Peddocks Island is served by a ferry from Hingham.[6]

In 1996, there was a project proposal by Boston's mayor Tom Menino and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Clifford A. Goudey to revitalize the aquaculture and fish population in Boston Harbor. This would have involved using the old tanks and granite canals on Moon Island.[7]

In 2008, Peddocks Island was used for filming scenes in Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island.[8]

List of islands and peninsulas

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Map of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.

The Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area is made up of islands and peninsulas on and around Boston Harbor. These include:[4][9]

Though they are located in Boston Harbor, neither Castle Island nor Spinnaker Island belong to Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. Other former islands (Apple Island, Governors Island and Noddle's Island) were obliterated by the formation of East Boston and the expansion of Logan International Airport before the creation of the national recreation area.

Management

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The Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area is managed by the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership,[10] a statutory body established as a federal operating committee by the park enabling legislation. The partnership consists of individual members who represent a range of federal, state, city, and nonprofit agencies, including:

Apart from the representative for the Coast Guard, who is appointed by the Secretary of Homeland Security, all the members of the partnership are appointed by the Secretary of the Interior after consultation with the appropriate agency or other body.[12][13][14]

In practice, day-to-day management of each individual island or other site is the responsibility of one of the partner agencies or other bodies. The partnership provides a consistency and coordination across the whole park.[15]

Boston Harbor Islands State Park

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Boston Harbor Islands State Park is a Massachusetts state park comprising 13 islands located in Boston Harbor, which now forms part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.

The park was developed from the 1970s by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management (DEM). In 1996, the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area was created, including the State Park's islands and many others. However, due to the unusual partnership management arrangements of the National Recreation Area, the State Park still exists as a low profile administrative entity. It is now managed by the DEM's successor, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, from a park headquarters near to the ferry terminal in Hingham.[15]

The islands of the Boston Harbor Islands State Park are:[15]

Transportation

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Ferries of the Harbor Islands Express link downtown Boston with some of the islands.

Boston Harbor Cruises offers ferry service from Long Wharf at Christopher Columbus Park to Georges and Spectacle Islands.[16] Free service is available between Georges and Spectacle, as well as between the other islands.[17] Summer service is also available from Hingham Shipyard and Hull to Georges Island via Grape, Bumpkin, and Lovells Islands.[18] (These services are separate from MBTA Boat harbor ferries.)

Thompson Island is only open to the public on Sundays during the summer. It is served by a ferry leaving from both Spectacle Island and the EDIC dock on Terminal Street in South Boston,[19] operated by the Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center.[20]

Private boats can dock (with various restrictions) at Spectacle, Grape, Bumpkin, Lovells, and Peddocks Islands.[21] The public dock on Georges Island was recently condemned by engineers, although access is still available by making anchor off shore and using a dinghy to row ashore.

Deer Island, Nut Island, Worlds End, and Webb Memorial are accessible by road from the mainland. Moon Island and Long Island are not open to the public; though Moon Island is accessible by road from Quincy, access is controlled by a police guard station at the beginning of the causeway on the Squantum peninsula. The causeway from Moon Island to Long Island was demolished in 2015 and it is no longer accessible by road.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Listing of acreage – December 31, 2011" (XLSX). Land Resource Division, National Park Service. Retrieved December 16, 2012. (National Park Service Acreage Reports)
  2. ^ "Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area". June 27, 2024. Retrieved August 8, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ "World's End (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved August 8, 2024.
  4. ^ a b "Boston Harbor Islands Visitor's Guide - The Islands". Boston Harbor Islands Partnership. Archived from the original on August 13, 2006. Retrieved August 9, 2006.
  5. ^ "National Historic Landmark nomination for Boston Light". National Park Service. Archived from the original on June 14, 2006. Retrieved June 18, 2006.
  6. ^ "Ferry Schedule". Boston Harbor Islands. Boston Harbor Islands. Archived from the original on July 24, 2024. Retrieved August 8, 2024.
  7. ^ Cf. Best; Cf. Marcus
  8. ^ Riglian, Adam (April 14, 2008). "DiCaprio, Scorsese filming on Peddocks Island". The Patriot Ledger. GateHouse Media. Archived from the original on October 27, 2008. Retrieved May 21, 2008.
  9. ^ US Geological Survey 7.5 minute series topographic map "Hull" 1971
  10. ^ "Boston Harbor Islands Partnership - Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  11. ^ "Boston Harbor Islands: A Partnership Park". Boston Harbor Islands. March 19, 2024. Retrieved August 8, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ "Islands Partnership - Governance". Boston Harbor Islands Partnership. Archived from the original on October 5, 2006. Retrieved October 6, 2006.
  13. ^ "Islands Partnership - Membership". Boston Harbor Islands Partnership. Archived from the original on August 30, 2006. Retrieved October 6, 2006.
  14. ^ "Public Law 104-33, 110 Stat. 4093 Sec. 1029. Boston Harbor Islands Recreation Area". Retrieved October 6, 2006.
  15. ^ a b c "Boston Harbor Islands - General Management Plan" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved October 19, 2006.
  16. ^ "WTA - Boston Harbor Islands". Archived from the original on July 28, 2010. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
  17. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 24, 2008. Retrieved June 25, 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  18. ^ "Ferry Schedule". Archived from the original on April 6, 2010. Retrieved July 26, 2010.
  19. ^ http://www.bostonislands.org/mainland-piers-edic-pier [permanent dead link]
  20. ^ "Ferry Tickets | Boston Harbor Islands". Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved July 26, 2010.
  21. ^ "Boston Harbor Islands Trip Planner | Docks & Marinas | Boston Harbor Islands". Archived from the original on July 10, 2010. Retrieved July 26, 2010.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.
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