Summer Guide: Travel

Boston"s Little-Known Secret: Scenic Islands Minutes Away

By Ethan Gilsdorf

In the ominous opening of Martin Scorsese"s movie Shutter Island, Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo take a boat out to a craggy-cliffed island off the coast of Boston.

Shutter Island was partly shot on an island called Peddocks, but none of the 34 real harbor islands actually look much like the movie"s computer-enhanced slab of rock.

It"s not hard to see why Scorsese and novelist Dennis Lehane found inspiration in these history-laden isles, part of the national park system since 1996 (www.bostonislands.com). Each one has its own character, and leaves its own impression.

Seven of the 11 islands currently open to the public are reachable by a 15- to 45-minute ferry ride from Boston"s waterfront. Four others are accessible by car. Day-trippers swim, fish, hike, bike, bird-watch and sunbathe on the beaches. Others camp for the night, while oil tankers ply the shipping lane and jets from nearby Logan Airport pass overhead. The Boston skyline remains a constant backdrop.

“At night we can see Fenway Park, said Phil Rahaim, a park ranger on the Boston Harbor Islands.

But not everyone is aware of their islands, and so far, this has kept the park from becoming overrun. “Like a lot of people, said Rahaim, “I didn"t know that there were islands out here till three or four years ago, when I applied for the job.

As a ranger, Rahaim teaches visitors how to fish, read a compass and make tea from staghorn sumac.

Spectacle is perhaps the island most transformed after years of neglect. Once the site of a farm, a quarantine hospital, a horse-rendering plant and a resort hotel-cum-gambling operation, Spectacle also served as the city dump in the 1950s.

“Landfill liquids oozed into the water, said Tom Powers, president of the Boston Harbor Island Alliance, one of many government and nonprofit groups that jointly administer the park. “It was a place no one wanted to go.

In a project begun in 1992 and finished in 2006, Spectacle was shored up, covered with 3.5 million cubic yards of dirt from Boston"s Big Dig project and planted with flora. There is now a changing station for swimmers.

Totaling 1,600 acres, these islands are the only coastal glacial drumlins in the United States and swell in size to 3,100 acres at low tide, revealing an intertidal zone rich with sea life. About 100 bird species migrate or live here, as do raccoons, deer and coyotes.

Native Americans settled the islands thousands of years ago. Revolutionary War soldiers skirmished here, and the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the famous all-African-American Civil War regiment, bivouacked here, as did World War I and World War II recruits.

Yet the islands harbor a darker past. In the 1670s, Indians were imprisoned and left to rot here; during the Cold War, sentries guarded Nike missile bases. On minuscule Nixes Mate, executed pirates were displayed as a warning to anyone thinking about looting passing ships.

The park"s biggest attraction might be its four lighthouses, especially Boston Light on outlying Little Brewster. Visitors can climb the light"s 76 steps and two ladders to the top and see the 1,000-watt bulb housed in a 150-year-old Fresnel lens.

The nation"s oldest continually used lighthouse site, it"s also the only nonautomatic lighthouse. Plus, its keeper is a woman named Sally Snowman. “Living on an island means you can"t just hop over to Home Depot, she said. “You have to plan ahead.

Snowman dresses in late 18th-century Colonial garb, part of an initiative to draw visitors with programs such as kayaking and yoga lessons, jazz concerts, vintage baseball games and children"s theater. On the wish list: more ferries to handle even more people. But increasing usage without wrecking the park is “our biggest nut to crack, said park superintendent Bruce Jacobson.