Washington Harbor / Schoolhouse Beach / Limestone Gems / Disappearing Treasure

Washington Harbor, also, Schoolhouse Beach, also, Limestone Gems, also, Disappearing Treasure. . , Washington Harbor , Washington Harbor is the oldest of four major harbors developed on Washington Island in the 1800's. Because of deep waters - up to 80 feet - and a wide entrance, Washington Harbor was the port of choice for the tall schooners and large steamships bringing trade, news and visitors to the Island's early settlements. to large commercial docks here served the big ships and were essential to the local commercial fishing economy. During these early years the docks facilitated water transportation around the Island, which was preferred to overland travel because the Island did not yet have a developed road system. , The big ships and docks are gone now along with the early settlements and those who eked out a living on these harbor shores. Yet Washington Harbor remains a magnet for visitors and a cherished heritage for the descendants who still make the Island their home. This place of natural beauty has a magical quality with its mirror smooth surface evoking quiet reflection both physical and spiritual., Schoolhouse Beach , Schoolhouse Beach is named for the first Island school built on this shore in the 1850's. In April of 1950 the Town of Washington purchase twenty-eight acre parcel of land including the pristine waterfront of Schoolhouse Beach, with the express intention of preserving the beach f use as a public park. Islanders and visitors alike are drawn to the beauty of Schoolhouse Beach with its broad blue harbor and its smooth stone beach. People come to swim and soak up the warm summer sun or simply to gaze reflectively out over the harbor. By night the starry sky or northern lights create glittering reflections of their own. The smoothly polished stones are an integral part of the Schoolhouse Beach experience. , Limestone Gems , Boyer's Bluff, a prominent geological feature around the northwest tip of Washington Island, is one link in a chain of bluffs that make up the Niagara escarpment. The high cliffs of Washington Island and Rock Island are among other steep rock formations that stretch east in an arc from Wisconsin through southern Canada all the way to Niagara Falls. Indeed, Niagara Falls cascades over the same rock formation that makes up Boyer's Bluff. What is now Boyer's Bluff was formed millions of years ago at the bottom of a vast shallow inland sea. Eventually the sea dried up, the land was tilted by forces from deep within the earth, the surface carved by glacial force. Boyer's Blatt is a rocky remnant that defied the glaciers. Since the time of the glacier large slabs of stone from Boyer's Bist eroded by the natural forces of wind, water and seasonal cycles, break off and crash to the beach below. These huge chunks of limestone now begin a journey that will end at Schoolhouse Beach. In a process known as littoral drift, wind and waves churn and tumble -the rocks steadily southward. Along the shore, below the heaving waves, the rocks work their way: each stone polishing the other for centuries, before coming to rest on Schoolhouse Beach. Only a very few beaches in the world are made up of beautiful smooth stones such as these perfectly shaped limestones gems.