A walk around Washburn Island

Washburn island is an island in Waquoit Bay in Eastern Falmouth, MA. I am privileged to have a young friend with a row-boat on Waquoit Bay, so we rowed across from town and walked around the island (all but the lower "foot"). About 3.5 miles. 

Rumor had it that Washburn Island was a good place to look for arrowheads. For example: my plumber grew up where the Moonakis (Childs) River feeds into the bay. He told me that kids picked up arrowheads everywhere around the Bay when he was young. His friend pulled a 6'' blade out of the water while clamming. [How I happened to be talking to the plumber about arrowheads is another story. Most people have some kind of arrowhead story.]

You can see from aerial photos there are several opportunities for examining gravel and eroding banks of sand. I already examined the beach at the head of the bay on the mainland and I was excited to get to the island. It looked good, with eroding bluffs and gravel bars. We planned to get down to the foot of the island at low tide but it was too far. So we circled the island as best we could and looked at gravel the whole way. This gives you an idea of the arrowhead hunting scenery:

I actually took this photo to point out the clusters of larger cobbles. There are three in this picture that look like fire rings [or maybe they were rock piles 😊]. People living along here before the sea washed away the soil. I mean, look closely at this:

Feeling that there ought to be many arrowheads, I gave the gravel every benefit of a doubt.

Now, if you have hunted arrowheads along a beach - here in Quahog territory - broken white clam shells are a constant distraction. How many times have I bent down to pick up something shaped and colored exactly like this, only to realize it was a bit of shell? I nearly did not pick this up, because of that but - what do you know? - it was the broken off tip of what would have been a pretty nice arrowhead. This is all I found in 3.5 miles:

Well, that proves the rumors true. But hardly matching my dreams. On the other hand, I cannot remember any complete arrowhead I collected that had this sharp a tip.

So maybe a trip to Washburn Island, once a year, makes sense for the future.