Monomoy Wilderness

As recently as 1958 this area was part of the mainland, an eroding shoreline at the elbow of Cape Cod. Severe winter storms isolated Monomoy Point from the mainland, and twenty years later North Monomoy Island was separated from South Monomoy Island. Today ten miles of surf-beaten dunes line the eastern shores of the islands, with shifting sands sometimes reaching heights of 100 feet. These dunes give way to salt marshes and mudflats on the western shore, creating ideal habitat for migratory birds. Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge became a wildlife sanctuary in 1944 and spans 7,604 acres, with most of its northern island and all but two tracts of the southern island designated as wilderness; the mainland portion of the refuge remains non-wilderness. People have inhabited the area since 1711, and a lighthouse complex on the southern island is a testament to their presence. Among the migratory birds that can be spotted here are grebes, shearwaters, petrels, gannets, bitterns, egrets, herons, swans, geese, ducks, and the endangered piping plover and roseate tern. Hundreds of gray and harbor seals winter along the coastline, and boaters visit the shores in summer. The Wilderness is in Massachusetts, is managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service, and was designated in 1970.