Halibut Point State Park

About this park

Halibut Point State Park, established in 1981, preserves a dramatic granite headland at the very northern tip of Cape Ann in Rockport, where sheets of 440-million-year-old granite descend from the rocky shoreline into Atlantic tidal pools below. The park occupies the site of the former Babson Farm Quarry, which supplied granite used to pave city streets and build bridges, tunnels, and landmark buildings including Boston's Custom House Tower during the quarrying industry's turn-of-the-20th-century heyday. The old quarry pit itself has since filled with water from natural underground springs, creating a striking, deep blue pool framed by sheer granite walls just steps from the ocean. A former World War II artillery fire control tower on the property has been converted into the park's visitor center and museum, with permanent exhibits covering both the site's military history and Cape Ann's granite-quarrying heritage. On clear days, views from the headland extend as far as Mount Agamenticus in Maine, some 40 miles away, and the Isles of Shoals off the New Hampshire coast, making Halibut Point one of the more far-reaching coastal vistas in eastern Massachusetts. The park adjoins the Trustees of Reservations' separately managed Halibut Point Reservation, together forming nearly two miles of public coastline, and the site's rich mix of granite outcrops, shrubland, and shoreline has earned it recognition as a Massachusetts Important Bird Area for migrating songbirds.