Birch Bay State Park in the town of Birch Bay, about 9 miles south of Blaine, preserves a broad stretch of shore on a sheltered bay, combining saltwater shoreline with freshwater frontage along Terrell Creek across roughly 225 acres. The park is used mainly for outdoor recreation, with camping, picnicking, fishing, crabbing, clamming, boating, and hiking. It also contains the archaeological site 45-WH-9, known to Native peoples as Strav-a-wa and considered one of the region’s largest archaeological sites. Recorded since 1963 and only lightly investigated, it yielded large quantities of Canis lupus familiaris bones during excavations in 1975 and 1976, linking the park’s modern public use to much older human presence.