Hangman Island

This island is a resting-place for gulls, ducks, and other seabirds.

NPS Photo/ M. Eloshway

Quick Facts

Location:

Quincy Bay

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

MANAGED BY:

Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation

In the Quincy Bay area, 7 miles away from Long Wharf sits Hangman Island. Like other islands in the harbor, Indigenous people accessed the island seasonally for thousands of years before European colonization. The origin of the name of Hangman Island is unknown and is speculated that pirates were hanged on this island. However, the island was labeled as "Hayman’s Island" in a chart published in London in 1775. The island is 6 acres and is made up of low granite and slate outcroppings and a fine gravel beach. Rising only three feet in elevation, Hangman Island can be difficult to see from the mainland and neighboring islands.  

In the 1600s, Hangman Island was used as a slate quarry and in the late 1800s fisherman huts occupied the island. The island was much larger and higher prior to the colonial period. However, quarrying that took place on Hangman Island likely accelerated erosion and as of 2016, there are no visible remnants of the fisherman huts. One flagpole is intact in the middle of the island. 

Learn More...

Island Facts: Hangman Island - Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

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Footnotes:

1. Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Cultural Landscape Report: Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park, Volume 2: Existing Conditions, (Boston: National Park Service, 2017), 89-90; National Park Service Boston Harbor Islands, "Hangman Island Facts," date last modified November 30, 2022; Moses Foster Sweetser, King’s Handbook of Boston Harbor (Cambridge, MA: Moses King, 1883), 214.
2. Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Cultural Landscape Report: Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park Volume 1: Historical Overview, (Boston: National Park Service, 2017) 33-35; Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Cultural Landscape Report Volume 2: Existing Conditions, 89-90.