Duxbury Beach is a

barrier beach Barrier islands are coastal landforms and a type of dune system that are exceptionally flat or lumpy areas of sand that form by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything from a ...

in the town of

Duxbury, Massachusetts Duxbury (alternative older spelling: "Duxborough") is a historic seaside town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb located on the South Shore approximately to the southeast of Boston, the population was 16,090 at the 20 ...

. It is six miles long and is accessed by the Powder Point Bridge from Duxbury, or Gurnet Road from Marshfield. Since 1975, approximately 4.5 miles of the beach is owned by Duxbury Beach Reservation, Inc, which annually leases a substantial portion of the beach—excepting the Duxbury Beach Park area—to the town of Duxbury. Under this arrangement, the town issues beach vehicle permits, provides police protection, and provides conservation officers to patrol the beach in all seasons of the year. It is 50 yards wide at some points, and is the sole land access to the villages of Saquish and Gurnet Point across the town line in Plymouth, the only land area where the two towns meet. The northern residential end is protected by an Army Corps Of Engineers concrete

seawall A seawall (or sea wall) is a form of coastal defense constructed where the sea, and associated coastal processes, impact directly upon the landforms of the coast. The purpose of a seawall is to protect areas of human habitation, conservation ...

. The beach is near Plymouth Light and the remains of the Civil War

Fort Andrew Fort Andrew is a former fort built as Gurnet Fort in 1776 for the American Revolutionary War on Gurnet Point in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It became a federal fort and was rebuilt in 1808, and again in 1863 during the Civil War when it received it ...

and Fort Standish. Fort Andrew was preceded by Gurnet Fort in the Revolutionary War. It is only accessible when the lighthouse has an open house for visitors.

History

An early trans-Atlantic cable came ashore at Rouse's Hummock on July 23, 1869, connecting France with the United States. Among those on the first call were Napoleon III and President James Garfield. George and Georgianna Wright purchased most of the land of Duxbury Beach in 1885 and constructed cottages on the beach at that time. In 1892, George Wright led the construction of what was known as "Long Bridge" and "Gurnet Bridge," which in its refurbished form remains the only access road from Duxbury to Duxbury Beach. The original bridge was built with oak and pine lumber. In 1919, George Wright's estate sold their land holdings on Duxbury Beach to the Duxbury Beach Association, a common law trust consisting of Duxbury residents. Duxbury Beach remained the property of the Duxbury Beach Association from 1919 until 1975. Regular attempts were made during this time period by the Massachusetts State Legislature and the Massachusetts Governor's Office to acquire the beach. Beginning in 1973, the Duxbury Beach Association leased annually the beach to the Town of Duxbury. Ownership of the beach was transferred in 1975 from the Duxbury Beach Association to Duxbury Beach Reservation, Inc., a non-profit organization. According to Envision Duxbury's Comprehensive Master Plan, released in 2019 and the result of a coordinated planning effort by the Town of Duxbury and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, 83% of Duxbury residents reported that Duxbury Beach is the town of Duxbury's greatest asset.

Wildlife and Ecosystems

There is a diversity of wildlife that corresponds to the diversity of habitats on the beach, inasmuch as the barrier beach contains a "protected" side facing Duxbury Bay and an "unprotected" side facing the Atlantic Ocean. Duxbury Beach suffers in

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

s and

nor'easter A nor'easter (also northeaster; see below), or an East Coast low is a synoptic-scale extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The name derives from the direction of the winds that blow from the northeast. The original use ...

s, as in the Blizzard of '78 and the

1991 Perfect Storm The 1991 Perfect Storm, also known as The No-Name Storm (especially in the years immediately after it took place) and the Halloween Gale/Storm, was a nor'easter that absorbed Hurricane Grace, and ultimately evolved into a small unnamed hurricane ...

Flora

Eel grass, culms of American beach grass, small woody shrubs, and bayberry fruits are notable on the beach.

Fauna

Piping plovers nest on the beach, and their habitats are protected by the Town of Duxbury's conservation officers and Duxbury Beach Reservation, Inc.'s staff. Brant,

sanderling The sanderling (''Calidris alba'') is a small wading bird. The name derives from Old English ''sand-yrðling'', "sand-ploughman". The genus name is from Ancient Greek ''kalidris'' or ''skalidris'', a term used by Aristotle for some grey-colou ...

semipalmated plover The semipalmated plover (''Charadrius semipalmatus'') is a small plover. ''Charadrius'' is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek ''kharadrios'' a bird found in ravines and ri ...

sandpiper Sandpipers are a large family, Scolopacidae, of waders. They include many species called sandpipers, as well as those called by names such as curlew and snipe. The majority of these species eat small invertebrates picked out of the mud or soil ...

s, sea ducks, loons, roseate terns,

grebe Grebes () are aquatic diving birds in the order Podicipediformes . Grebes are widely distributed freshwater birds, with some species also found in marine habitats during migration and winter. Some flightless species exist as well, most notably ...

s, cormorants, mergansers,

swallow The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae, are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...

s, and various

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century ...

s are all present in their proper seasons.

Powder Point Bridge

The Powder Point Bridge is the only access road by which the town of Duxbury is joined to Duxbury Beach. The current bridge's construction was completed on August 29, 1987. It is built of tropical hardwood from South America and East Asia. Its construction began in 1985, after a fire partially damaged the original bridge on June 11, 1985, and revealed structural issues.

In the Media

Film production studios have used Duxbury Beach and the Powder Point Bridge as filming locations. Films that have featured the beach include

The Way, Way Back ''The Way, Way Back'' is a 2013 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash in their directorial debuts. It stars Liam James as Duncan, an introverted 14-year-old who goes on summer vacation to War ...

, Altar Rock, and The Finest Hours.

References

External links

Duxbury Beach Reservation, Inc.Duxbury HarbormasterDuxbury Police Department: Harbormaster's OfficeTown of Duxbury Webpage: Duxbury Beach
{{coord, 42, 02, 30.37, N, 70, 38, 08.13, W, display=title Duxbury, Massachusetts Beaches of Massachusetts Landforms of Plymouth County, Massachusetts Tourist attractions in Plymouth County, Massachusetts