Washington Harbor, the oldest of four major harbors developed on Washington Island in the 1800's, had deep waters up to 80 feet and a wide entrance that made it the preferred port for tall schooners and large steamships bringing trade, news, and visitors to the Island's early settlements. Large commercial docks served the big ships and were essential to the local commercial fishing economy, while also facilitating water transportation around the Island before a developed road system existed. Though the big ships, docks, early settlements, and many of the people who lived by the harbor are gone, Washington Harbor remains a place of natural beauty, a draw for visitors, and a cherished heritage for descendants who still live on the Island. Schoolhouse Beach takes its name from the first Island school built on this shore in the 1850's, and in April 1950 the Town of Washington purchased a twenty-eight acre parcel including the beach's pristine waterfront to preserve it for use as a public park. People are drawn to its broad blue harbor, smooth stone beach, summer swimming, and reflective nighttime views under stars or northern lights. Those polished stones come from Boyer's Bluff, a prominent geological feature at the northwest tip of Washington Island and part of the Niagara escarpment, the same rock formation that extends from Wisconsin through southern Canada to Niagara Falls. Formed millions of years ago on the bottom of a vast shallow inland sea, then shaped by drying seas, tilting land, and glacial carving, Boyer's Bluff remained as a rocky remnant while slabs of limestone broke away and fell to the beach below. Through littoral drift, wind and waves gradually churned and tumbled these rocks southward, where they polished one another for centuries before coming to rest at Schoolhouse Beach, one of the very few beaches in the world made of smooth limestone stones.