Spectacle Island () is an island in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, United States. It has a varied history, and today is a public park.

History

Archaeological evidence suggests Native Americans used the island as a fishing and clamming spot starting around 600 AD. This continued till around 1615, when European diseases killed virtually all of the native population. Europeans began use of the island in the 1630s, first as a source of firewood, then (ironically) as a smallpox quarantine. From the 1730s, the island housed farmsteads and picnickers.

Starting in the early 1800s, this island was used exclusively for its relative remoteness from Boston. Two hotels were built in 1847, only to be closed by police ten years later when it was discovered they were used for gambling and other illicit activities. A horse-rendering plant was built in 1857, followed by a city trash incinerator that remained active until 1935. With the incinerator closed, trash was simply dumped on the island for the next thirty years, until a bulldozer was suddenly swallowed up by the trash in 1959. The island remained a smelly, leaking dump until the 1990s.

When the Big Dig began work in Boston in 1992, some of the excavated dirt and clay was used to resurface the island. The island was covered and built up by dirt, capped with two feet of clay, and covered with two to five feet of topsoil. Thousand of trees were planted, and paths, buildings, and a dock were built. The island opened to the public in June, 2006, as part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.

External Links

• Boston Harbor Islands page on Spectacle Island