Bumpkin Island

Small but picturesque, Bumpkin Island was home to American Indians, a fish-drying operation, tenant farmers, a naval training camp, polio patients, and more. Its slate and shell beaches and open areas make it a relaxing place to wander, with trails lined with wildflowers, the remains of a stone farmhouse and children's hospital, campsites in either a woody area or a beach clearing, native plants featured in ranger-led nature tours, and protected waters around the islands of Hingham Harbor that are popular with paddlers. The U.S. Navy turned the 30-acre island into a bustling training station housing as many as 1,750 young men who then shipped out to fight in World War I, and the ruins of a 19th-century farmhouse recall an earlier way of life there.

Boston, Massachusetts · United States