As I See It

Bill Sargent, The Daily News of Newburyport, Edition May 25, 2019

“For over a year, waves have been slowly unearthing a mystery on Plum Island Point.“

“The first inkling we had of its existence was when Ethan Cohen and I took some drone shots of erosion on the point for the Newburyport Conservation Commission.“

“As we scrutinized the photos, we noticed several curious squares just offshore. They were too perfect to be natural and there hadn’t been any recent boat accidents. We even looked into the possibility that they were from a similar-sized array of oceanographic instruments the Army Corps of Engineers had lost near the north jetty.“

“But things became even more interesting when erosion increased this past year. At low tide, we started to see a line of about a dozen concrete blocks and a large cement foundation for some kind of dock or streetlight.“

“A few days later, we found what looked like a fuel line and several linear yards of chain-link fence. Could they possibly have been part of a U-boat net or a riverside launching area for Coast Guard boats during Prohibition? A state biologist even mentioned that the federal government had run a salmon hatchery near the site. These were all intriguing ideas, but none made sense for one reason or another.“

“Then in early May, I was going through some aerial photographs to establish that the Army Corps of Engineers had built the spur of the south jetty in a vain attempt to prevent the old Coast Guard station from being washed away.“

“Then, I stumbled on a serendipitous discovery. One of the photographs was taken of a parcel of land just south of today’s boardwalk. In the middle of the photograph was a rectangular plot with two large and four small buildings, and right there in front of the buildings was a tower with the large concrete foundation we had been seeing on the beach at low tide.“

“The caption said the Coast Guard owned the buildings and that the photo had been taken just after a series of storms had caused extensive damage on Plum Island in 1969 and just before the dike had been pumped in 1970. But no mention was made of what the buildings and tower had been used for.“

“What is interesting is that the buildings were there as recently as 1969 but nobody seems to remember them. I suspect they were for something simple and benign like a radio signaling station.“

“But one of the interesting reasons that so little is known about the area is that even as recently as 1969, the dunes were more extensive and people didn’t walk on the distant beach as much as they do now.“

“So the mystery is threequarters of the way to being solved. Hopefully, someone with a long memory or access to official documents will be able to completely unravel the enigma on Plum Island Point.“

Copyright © 2019 The Daily News of Newburyport, Edition 5/25/2019