Visitors Tour Mysterious Mass. Island For First Time In Decades
SALEM (CBS) - For the first time in decades, outsiders were allowed on a private island off the coast of Salem, Mass.
The people who live on Bakers Island valued and fought for their privacy, and are not expected to give visitors a warm welcome.
If you grew up on the North Shore, you may know the legend of the island. It's a place shrouded in mystery simply because no one could ever visit.
It's just five miles off the coast of Salem and a public ferry is now taking visitors out there for tours.
"It's been a great mystery, a real mystery, this island," one woman said.
Until now it could be seen, but not touched, at least not by the general public. Now, anyone can be an explorer.
"So you guys are some of the first people in the last 70 years that are going to be able to come out and visit Bakers Island," a tour guide said.
It's a quick boat ride from Salem and trespassing signs still adorn the docks.
"There's nothing public about the island," the guide said. "No public roads, no public docks, there's no schools, no police."
A historic preservation group called Essex National Heritage Commission has taken ownership of ten acres of the 55 acre island.
It was a World War II Coast Guard station. Tour groups have to navigate the rocky shore to climb up to the renovated centuries old lighthouse and meet its keepers who live there with limited power.
"We have a lot of fun just playing Scrabble and Canasta," the lighthouse keeper said. "And we eat jelly beans every night and go to bed when the sun goes down."
There are about 50 homes on the island and they have lived there functioning for years. Signs around the island indicate they want to maintain their privacy.
"I guess what you can't have, you want," one visitor said.
"We'd take long walks on the beach and we could look over and see the lighthouse," another visitor said.
Now they've seen the lighthouse up close and even met the dog that lives with its keepers.
So the next time these visitors see Bakers Island from afar, the memory of its quiet charm replaces the mystery that kept it under wraps for decades.
