Sandy Point State Reservation
| Sandy Point State Reservation | |
| Massachusetts State Park | |
 View south from Sandy Point. Castle Hill, Ipswich, is visible across the bay. The trees are white birch.
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| Named for: The extensive sand bank projecting into Ipswich Bay that appears at low tide and is a hazard when covered at high tide. | |
| Nickname: Sandy Point | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Massachusetts |
| County | Essex |
| Town | Ipswich |
| Location | Southern tip of Plum Island |
| - coordinates | 42°42′10″N 70°46′35″W / 42.70278°N 70.77639°WCoordinates: 42°42′10″N 70°46′35″W / 42.70278°N 70.77639°W |
| Highest point | |
| - elevation | 50 ft (15 m) |
| Lowest point | |
| - elevation | 0 ft (0 m) |
| Area | 134 acres (54 ha) |
| Biomes | Littoral zone, park |
| Geology | Glacial residue |
| Nearest city | Newburyport |
  Location in Massachusetts
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| Website: Sandy Point State Reservation | |
Sandy Point State Reservation is a coastal Massachusetts state park located in the town of Ipswich at the southern tip of Plum Island. The reservation is managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation and is an important nesting area for the piping plover and the least tern. Access to the reservation is through the adjoining Parker River National Wildlife Refuge.
Sandy Point State Reservation is on a large spit of sand at the southern end of Plum Island: "Sandy Point". Plum Island Drive, a dirt road on the southern half of Plum Island, ends at the foot of a hill of glacial origin, Bar Head. Rocks: "Bar Head Rocks", extend from a 19th-century gravel pit in the side of the hill into the water. Some of them have been formed into a rudimentary breakwater at the high water line. At present harbor seals have been observed basking in these rocks and in Emerson Rocks slightly further north in the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. They are rare; visitors cannot count on seeing one. They are advised by sign not to approach a seal if one is present. The presence of the seals has also brought their main predators back to the waters off Plum Island: sharks. Although shark attacks are extremely rare as yet, sightings are not. Among them is the great white shark. Swimmers either from the beach or from boats off the beach are advised to consider the dangers.
On the north side of Bar Head is Stage Island Pool, a fresh-water pond created on the vestiges of a 19th-century salt works. It is named after Stage Island, the esker that forms its northern border. The drying vats stood where the pool now stands; gravel was mined from the hill to place a circular protective access road around what is now the pool area. Within it was a canal and within that the vats. A dike was placed across the mouth of what was then Bar Island Creek (now non-existent) dividing it from Stage Island Creek and creating an impoundment in the canals, kept full by several pump-up windmills and a treadmill. Water was periodically channeled from the canal to the drying vats. The salt works was not profitable and did not last long. The dike was kept, behind which fresh-water runoff drowned the vats and the canal, creating a convenient refuge for birds.
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