The narrow band of sand dunes separating the Head of the Harbor and th Atlantic Ocean just north of Wauwinet hold a special place in the economic and physiographic history of Nantucket. Sometime in th early nineteenth century, certainly before 1846 when it appeared on a survey map of he coastline, fishermen from the town cut an opening through the dunes so that they could drag their boats from the harbor over the sand and launch them into the ocean, enabling them to reach the rich fishing grounds to the south of the island without making the long voyage around Great Point to the north.

This route served for over half a century until December 1896, when almost miraculously, the sea opened a channel through the sand following a path known as the Haul Over. It soon widened and attained a depth of eight feet so that small boats could pass through, eliminating the laborious task of dragging the boats over the sand. During the next years, the opening widened to a quarter of a mile, but it showed a constant tendency to migrate northward after 1902 and almost attained the northern reache of the Head of the Harbor by 1908. Then came a storm in November 1908 which finished the job that nature was doing, by closing the opening permanently. Though there have been temporary break-throughs in this vicinity in recent years, no lasting channel has been cut through the dunes by the sea.

David M. Ludlum (The Nantucket Weather Book)