Green Island (Massachusetts)
Encyclopedia
Green Island, also known as North Brewster Island, is a rocky outer island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 in the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area
Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area
The Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area is a National Recreation Area situated among the islands of Boston Harbor of Boston, Massachusetts. The area is made up of a collection of islands, together with a former island and a peninsula, many of which are open for public recreation and some...

, to the north of Calf Island
Calf Island (Massachusetts)
Calf Island, also known as Apthorps Island, is a windswept island situated some offshore of downtown Boston in the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. The island has a permanent size of , plus an intertidal zone of a further , and has a thin layer of soil that supports vegetation...

 and Hypocrite Channel
Hypocrite Channel
The Hypocrite Channel is a small channel in Massachusetts Bay, located within the city limits of Boston. It's also located within the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. The channel runs between the islands of Half Tide Rocks, Calf Island, Little Calf Island, and Green Island....

. The island has a permanent size of 2.5 acres (10,117.2 m²), plus an intertidal zone
Intertidal zone
The intertidal zone is the area that is above water at low tide and under water at high tide . This area can include many different types of habitats, with many types of animals like starfish, sea urchins, and some species of coral...

 of a further 15 acres (60,702.9 m²), and is exposed from the east and northeast with little soil or plant life. The island is named after Joseph Green, a well-known merchant, who owned the island during Colonial times.

Green Island is a nesting area for Herring Gulls
American Herring Gull
The American Herring Gull or Smithsonian Gull is a large gull which breeds in North America. It is often treated as a subspecies of the European Herring Gull but is now regarded as a separate species by some authorities.Adults are white with gray back and wings, black wingtips with white spots,...

, Black-backed Gulls
Great Black-backed Gull
The Great Black-backed Gull is the largest gull in the world, which breeds on the European and North American coasts and islands of the North Atlantic...

, Cormorant
Cormorant
The bird family Phalacrocoracidae is represented by some 40 species of cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed recently, and the number of genera is disputed.- Names :...

s, Barn Swallow
Barn Swallow
The Barn Swallow is the most widespread species of swallow in the world. It is a distinctive passerine bird with blue upperparts, a long, deeply forked tail and curved, pointed wings. It is found in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas...

s, Red-winged Blackbird
Red-winged Blackbird
The Red-winged Blackbird is a passerine bird of the family Icteridae found in most of North and much of Central America. It breeds from Alaska and Newfoundland south to Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, and Guatemala, with isolated populations in western El Salvador, northwestern Honduras, and...

s, and rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...

s. The island is a popular location for striped bass
Striped bass
The striped bass is the state fish of Maryland, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and the state saltwater fish of New York, Virginia, and New Hampshire...

 fishermen during the summer months. However, access by humans is difficult, and especially discouraged during the birds' nesting season
Nesting season
The nesting season is the time of year during which birds and some other animals, particularly some reptiles, build nests, lay eggs in them, and in most cases bring up their young. It is usually in the spring....

.

History

During 1845, a fifty year old seaman named Samuel Choat came to green Island and lived here as an independent spirit for the next twenty years. Choat constructed a crude house here and made his living by fishing on the local waters. His main diet was lobster, fish, and mussels. Choat could not be encouraged to leave Green Island, even during the coldest winters.

In 1851, during the storm that destroyed Minot's Ledge Light
Minot's Ledge Light
Minot's Ledge Light, officially Minots Ledge Light, is a lighthouse on Minot's Ledge, one mile offshore of the towns of Cohasset and Scituate, Massachusetts, to the southeast of Boston Harbor The current lighthouse is the second on the site, the first having been washed away in a storm after only...

 off Cohasset
Cohasset, Massachusetts
Cohasset is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, though it is not contiguous with the main body of the county. The population was 7,542 at the 2010 census.- History :...

, the tide rose so high that the inhabitants of Green Island had to be rescued by the Boston Pilot boat. In another storm in 1862, Choat's boat was broken up on the rocks surrounding the island. He was taken to Boston, where he purchased another boat and quickly returned to Green Island.

Due to the severity of the cold weather during the winter of 1865, Choat had to be removed from Green Island. He was 70 years of age at the time. On February 8, Choat was transferred to the State Almshouse in Bridgewater where he died on Feb 23, 1865.

In 1869, Barrel Rock
Barrel Rock
Barrel Rock is a small barren rock within the edge of Cohasset Harbor in Cohasset, Massachusetts, USA. The rock is north of Sutton Rocks, northwest of Quarry Point, south of Chittenden Rock, and east of Brush Island. It is located at...

, a massive boulder of Medford granite that was deposited by an ancient glacier just west of Green Island, was removed by Major General Foster.
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