Elizabeth Islands


The Elizabeth Islands are a chain of small islands extending southwest from the southern coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts in the United States. They are located at the outer edge of Buzzards Bay, north of Martha's Vineyard, from which they are separated by Vineyard Sound, and constitute the town of Gosnold in Dukes County, Massachusetts.

History

In 1602 the islands were first discovered by Europeans when the English explorer and colonialist Bartholomew Gosnold sighted them on his way to Virginia. However it was not until 1641, subsequent to the successful establishment of the first English North American colonies, that colonialists formally laid claim and settled the islands in the name of the English Crown as part of the country's nascent imperial expansion. At this time they renamed the islands after Elizabeth I, who had been Queen of England when the islands had first been discovered. In 1641, Thomas Mayhew the Elder, of Watertown, Massachusetts, bought the islands—along with Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard—from William Alexander, the Earl of Stirling.
Before the creation of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1691, the islands were part of the extinct Dukes County, New York. The first known European inhabitant was Francis Usselton, who had been banished at the time for making secret trades with the local Indians without consent from the governor.

Geography and demographics

The total land area of the islands is 34.55 km² ; and there was a permanent population of 75 persons as of the 2010 census, making it the smallest town in Massachusetts.

Named islands

Stretching south-west from land's end at Falmouth, Massachusetts, the islands are:
Channels with strong tidal currents, known locally as holes, separate the islands from each other and the mainland. Currents of up to are driven by the different sizes and filling rates of Vineyard Sound to the southeast and Buzzards Bay to the northwest. At high tide, water flows from Buzzards Bay to the Vineyard Sound. Near mid-tide the water stops and reverses, filling the Bay at low tide.
Listed from northeast to southwest, the named channels are:
All of the Elizabeth Islands, except Cuttyhunk and Penikese, are privately owned by the Forbes family.