Tombolo(s) of Connecticut

I have an odd affinity for tombolos. I don’t know why. It’s completely irrational. Even one of the earliest Twelve Mile Circle articles focused on the phenomenon.

I’ll stick with a definition I drafted back then and quote myself.

“A Tombolo is a narrow neck of land that forms between the mainland and an island, or between two islands, as sand and sediment deposit between them. Waves hit a landform at a specific angle determined by surrounding currents. Over time this can build up to a sandbar or sand spit. If there happens to be an island or a rock nearby, and if the sediment builds up at exactly the right angle, then the two can join as one. Vegetation may take hold on the new land and further anchor a tombolo into place.”

What’s the deal with Connecticut though, and why did I cryptically title the article parenthetically? It’s due to a persistent rumor, folklore, assertion or whatever that only a single tombolo exists in the state of Connecticut. Steve of Connecticut Museum Quest and I discussed this occasionally over the last four years; not intensely, just as a curiosity that arose periodically.

I’ve learned to be skeptical whenever is see claims of the “only” whatever, probably because the 12MC audience always proves me wrong whenever I make an assertion like that. On the other hand, Connecticut is a really small state. It had an air of plausibility. The story came up again from one of Steve’s readers so I decided to see if I could either prove or remove the “single Connecticut tombolo theory” for good.

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Charles Island

Charles Island in Milford became the centerpiece of the claim, the supposed magic tombolo singularity.

Admittedly, this seemed to be a great example of a tombolo and a highlight of Silver Sands State Park.

“The early history of Silver Sands focuses on Charles Island. The Island is connected to the mainland by a sand/gravel bar (tombolo) that is submerged at high tide. Captain Kidd is reputed to have buried his treasure on the island in 1699. The only remains on the island are of a Catholic retreat center from the 1920’s-30’s.”

I found all sorts of supernatural claims about Charles Island, about it supposedly being haunted and evil with wild ghost stories and a complete lack of evidence to back them up. The Wikipedia page was particularly embarrassing with a totally unreferenced section called “Legends of hauntings, treasure and a curse.”

Was this the only tombolo in Connecticut, though? No. Not even close.

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Menunketesuck Island

Steve’s reader mentioned Menunketesuck Island, off of the coast of Westbrook. It followed the same pattern as Charles Island, albeit considerably more obscure, with a similar sandy connection to the mainland accessible only at low tide. Personally, I thought this one seemed to be just as legitimate as the tombolo at Charles Island.

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Bushy Point

Might there be others though? Yes! Yes, there were others.

I uncovered Bushy Point at Bluff Point State Park in Groton. As the park website described it,

“State holdings include a north-south strip of the mainland, a portion of the headland bluff fronting the Sound, and the tombolo or sandspit forming a beach of nearly one mile in length. The beach terminates in a small, rocky island called Bushy Point.”

Drill down and take a look at the sand deposited between mainland and island.

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Captain Harbor Tombolos

After pondering the likelihood of three Connecticut tombolos between mainland and tied-islands, I turned my attention to island-to-island tombolos. I recalled my adventure with Steve last summer during our Connecticut Extremes Adventure, as we searched for the state’s southernmost point on Great Captain Island. I swore I saw a tombolo although I couldn’t tell if it was natural or man-made.

In fact there appeared to be at least three tombolos in Greenwich’s Captain Harbor once I looked at the maps a little closer.

Great Captain/Captains/Captain’s Island

I took this photograph during our brief stop. Notice the causeway. Did the causeway come first or was it used to solidify an existing sandbar? The Town of Greenwich provided an explanation,

“The island is a remnant of a glacial moraine. It contains a diversity of rock types- gneiss, schist, granite-with a very large glacial erratic on the southern side. The Eastern and western sections are connected by a tombolo – sand or gravel bar.”

That led me to believe the tombolo formed naturally and was later enhance and preserved by the causeway.

Island Beach and Wee Captain Island

I had the same suspicion here, and again the Town of Greenwich came to the rescue,

“Island Beach formerly known as Little Captain’s Island… lies about 3,500 feet due east of the larger Great Captain’s Island, and is connected by a 600-foot long tombolo, or intertidal sand bar, to Wee Captain’s Island, a privately-owned half-acre island off its easterly side.”

Calf Island and Shell Island

This tombolo existed within the same proximity. Calf Island was part of the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge. The Calf Island Conservancy [link no longer available] explained:

“At 31.5 acres, Calf Island is the largest offshore island in Greenwich, CT. It is located directly south of Byram Harbor, approximately 3,000 feet from the mainland, and is connected at low tide to the Greenwich Land Trust’s Shell Island.”

I then looked at various Connecticut islands and shoreline farther along Long Island Sound and spotted numerous likely candidates. I didn’t have time to research them individually. However, I’m sure it could be done if the ones I’ve already mentioned didn’t seem sufficient. That’s a polite way of saying I began to get bored with it and others should feel free to pick up the charge.

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Governors Island

But not every island connected to mainland qualifies as a tombolo. A tombolo, by definition, happens through wave action. I found a recent article in the Hartford Courant, A Journey To A Windswept Island In Goodwin State Forest, that claimed that Governors Island was a tombolo.

“After a brief walk east along Estabrooks Road, I returned to the forest and Pine Acres Pond Trail, which runs along the entire eastern shore of the pond. After its shadowy start in a deep pine forest, the canopy opens overhead as the trail winds past a large swamp and across swaths of huge rocks to the tombolo – a spit of land that connects to Governor’s Island.”

I don’t think the pond would be large enough to generate the necessary wave action to create a true tombolo. I’ll bet it’s a pretty spot, just maybe not a tombolo. I’m thinking sediment washed downstream rather than waves.

Nonetheless, I think I found sufficient evidence to demonstrate that Connecticut doesn’t have a tombolo (singular) it has tombolos (plural).