Back Shore
Views of Rocky Coastline, Savor Salt Air
Though small in size, Back Shore exemplifies the wonderful scenery of Cape Ann with a spectacular view of its magnificent, rocky coastline.
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Back Shore is a perfect place to enjoy the view and savor the salt air.
It has long been a favorite locale for surf fishermen angling for striped bass, including Indigenous people, who for thousands of years thrived on Cape Ann shores. Maritime Archaic people hunted seals and walruses here 6,000 years ago, and later Eastern Woodland Indians known as Algonquians were setting surf and channel nets between headlands and harvesting sea bird eggs and feathers from offshore rookeries.
By around 1,000 CE, Pawtucket people from the Sayward Street area along Little Good Harbor River would travel to Back Shore each spring for the striped bass runs.
Greenbelt completed the installation of the granite bench for visitors to enjoy in 2020.
Save Our Shores Gloucester and a group of concerned citizens created the opportunity for conservation and raised funds in 2016 to acquire the property and protect it from development. In 2017, Save Our Shores Gloucester transferred the property to Greenbelt.
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Land Acknowledgment
The properties that Greenbelt conserves are on the ancestral lands of the Pennacook and the Pawtucket, bands of Abenaki-speaking people. Join us in honoring the elders who lived here before, the Indigenous descendants today and the generations to come. Learn more…