The short version
How did Washburn Island end up as a wild state park instead of a private enclave? Donald L. Keay, a retired Bridgewater State College historian living in East Falmouth, traces the island from scattered farms to a Gilded Age summer estate, a World War II Army training base, decades of free public use, and finally a state taking. His conclusion is hopeful: an island that a 1951 newspaper editorial wrote off as ruined had grown back into a peaceful refuge by 2001. The article is a short narrative history; the 1975–1983 politics are told in Saving Washburn Island.
What the author did
Keay wrote a four-page history for the college’s general-interest magazine.
- Drew on local records, archaeological surveys and Falmouth Enterprise reporting.
- Followed the island owner by owner, from the 17th century to the state.
- Gave the most space to the Army’s wartime use of the island and what it left behind.
What he found
- No early villages. Surveys found stone tools from passing hunters and gatherers but no long-term settlement before the 1800s. By the mid-1800s the island, then called Menauhant, had three working farms (Keay, 2001).
- A summer estate. Sea captain Henry Bryant assembled the island between 1893 and 1895 and built a large summer house. A group of investors that included Albert Henry Washburn bought it in 1912, planning house lots. Only one lot sold, and the Washburns took the rest for themselves. Their house burned on October 26, 1926.
- Storms made it an island. The 1938 hurricane cut through the sandspit by Eel Pond, opening a channel. The Army filled it, and the 1944 hurricane opened it again for good.
- A wartime base. From 1942 the Army trained amphibious troops on the island, with roads, drill fields and five long piers into Waquoit Bay, before moving the training to Florida in 1943. It then ran a recreation center for recovering soldiers, with up to 800 visitors a day in summer 1945.
- Open to all. Florence Washburn turned down offers to buy the island but let the public use it freely. After her death in 1953, her son, Dr. A. Lincoln Washburn, kept it open.
- Saved by the rules and the neighbors. After a tax reassessment, Dr. Washburn offered the island to the town, but the purchase failed. Two development companies then sought to buy it for luxury homes. Strict state and local rules for barrier beaches, and opposition from town boards and private groups, kept them from getting permits. The state took the island by eminent domain at its appraised value and joined it with South Cape Beach as a state park.
What it means for Waquoit Bay today
Keay’s account is the best short history of the island before 1975, and it explains why so much of the island is young pine and oak: the Army cleared most of the old forest. For the later years, check his dates against the Falmouth Enterprise. He puts the offer to the town in 1976, but the Enterprise shows Town Meeting voting to buy the island in April 1975 and voters overturning that purchase in May 1975 (our summary). CPWB was one of the “private groups” in the story; the taking came in June 1983.
For what the state planned for the island after it took it, see the 1984 sanctuary plan. For the longer story of the bay and its Reserve, see Nancy Church’s history.
Read the article
Keay, D. L. (2001). A history of Washburn Island. Bridgewater Review, 20(2), 22–25. https://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol20/iss2/10
License: No license is stated, so the article is linked, not hosted. It is free to read in Bridgewater State University’s Virtual Commons. This summary is based on the full article. The card image is a title card made from the citation.
Drafted with AI assistance from the linked source.
