Odiorne Point State Park

Long before Europeans arrived, this shore was part of the homeland of the Abenaki people, who fished the estuaries and river mouths of the Seacoast. Their descendants remain part of the region today.

In 1623 a small group of English fishermen and traders established a settlement here, the first European foothold in what became New Hampshire. They called it Pannaway Plantation, built a fortified house and fish-drying stages, and worked the rich fishing grounds offshore. The colony did not last long as an organized settlement, but it marks the beginning of European New Hampshire, and a marker in the park commemorates it.

By the late 1800s Odiorne Point had become a place of gracious summer homes and gardens, a genteel seaside colony for well-off families. Traces of that era, including old plantings and stonework gone wild, still turn up along the trails.

That ended abruptly in 1942. With the United States at war and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard building submarines just up the river, the Army took the entire point by eminent domain, demolished the summer homes, and built Fort Dearborn, a coastal defense post. Concrete gun batteries, bunkers, and a fire-control tower went up among the trees to guard the approach to Portsmouth Harbor. The guns were never fired in battle, and after the war the land eventually passed to the state as a park.

At low tide the rocky shelf below the point opens into a maze of tide pools, and this is the park's natural showpiece. In the pools and under the rockweed you can find green crabs, periwinkles, hermit crabs, sea stars, and the soft blooms of sea anemones, along with barnacles and mussels clinging to the exposed rock.

Behind the shore the park holds a mix of habitats unusual for so small a place: salt marsh, freshwater marsh, thickets, and woods, which together draw a great variety of birds. It is a favorite spot for birdwatchers, especially during migration, when the point acts as a landing place along the coast.

Inside the park, the Seacoast Science Center interprets the Gulf of Maine with touch tanks, exhibits, and a marine mammal rescue program, making it a natural first or last stop, especially with children. It turns a walk on the shore into a lesson in what lives just offshore.

A network of gentle paved and gravel paths loops through the park, linking the shore, the ponds, the old fort structures, and the science center. The walking is easy and mostly flat, which makes Odiorne one of the most accessible wild places on the Seacoast.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.