Deer Island (Massachusetts)

For the island in the Merrimack River, see Deer Island (Amesbury, Massachusetts).
Deer Island, Boston Harbor, 2008

Deer Island is a peninsula in Boston, Massachusetts. Since 1996, it has been part of the Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park. Although still an island by name, Deer Island has been connected to the mainland since the former Shirley Gut channel, which once separated the island from the town of Winthrop, was filled in by the 1938 New England hurricane.[1] Today, Deer Island is the location of the Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, whose 150-foot-tall (46 m) egg-like sludge digesters are major harbor landmarks.[2][3]

Wastewater treatment plant, water tower, Deer Island

The island's permanent size is 185 acres (0.75 km2), plus an intertidal zone of a further 80 acres (320,000 m2). Two-thirds of the island's area is taken up with the wastewater plant, which treats sewage from 43 nearby cities and towns, and is the second-largest such plant in the United States.[4] The remainder of the island is park land surrounding the treatment plant. The area offers walking, jogging, sightseeing, picnicking and fishing activities.[2][3]

During King Philip's War, the island was used as an internment camp for hundreds of indigenous people, and many died.[1] Today, Native Americans commemorate the loss by returning to Deer Island on an annual basis.[5]

  1. ^ a b "Island Facts: Deer Island". Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. National Park Service. November 30, 2023. Archived from the original on September 1, 2023. Retrieved August 9, 2024.
  2. ^ a b "Islands You Can Visit - Deer Island". Boston Harbor Islands Partnership. Archived from the original on August 26, 2006. Retrieved August 21, 2006.
  3. ^ a b "Deer Island Factsheet". Boston Harbor Islands Partnership. Archived from the original on June 29, 2006. Retrieved August 21, 2006.
  4. ^ Association, Charles River Watershed. "Deer Island | Charles River Watershed Association". www.crwa.org. Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-01-27.
  5. ^ "Ethnographic & Archeological Sites". Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. National Park Service. February 26, 2015. Archived from the original on April 17, 2024. Retrieved August 9, 2024.