ISHRA Weekend, September, 5-7/8, 2025
“I am going to cross over to the Isles of Shoals this forenoon, and intend to stay several days there, until I get saturated with sea-breeze.”
Surely Hawthorne had no parking issues when he boarded his boat out to the Shoals on that early September morning 173 years ago. While we can laugh about it now, we started our own journey with quite a parking kerfuffle at the dock as we readied ourselves for our trip out to the Shoals. But as soon as we were on board the Laighton, the ropes were dropped and we pulled away from the craziness, our cares were once again behind us and we looked forward with great anticipation over the calm and gentle seas on that sunny day as we sailed due east, ten miles out to our beloved little isles.
It never gets old - the excitement of pulling into Gosport Harbor, the cheers at the dock welcoming us, the cookies and lemonade on the porch. Everywhere we look we see the faces of dear friends and of those who will soon become new friends. We scramble with our luggage, find our rooms and settle in. We did come back!
Hard to grasp that our ISHRA weekend is now behind us but what a wonderful experience it was. ISHRA’s theme this September was “Before Gosport: An Archeological Exploration of Early Human Presence at the Isles of Shoals”. We were beyond fortunate to have Dr. Nathan Hamilton back with us as our guest speaker. Dr. Hamilton, recently retired Associate Professor of Archeology at the University of Southern Maine, former ISHRA president and past conference co-chair, spearheaded the multi year archeological dig on Smuttynose Island.
Dr. Hamilton presented two fascinating, in-depth lectures about the dig, taking us back through 12,000 years of history, giving us a better understanding of what the Isles of Shoals were like before there was ever a town called Gosport.
Flakes of rhyolite, jasper and quartz left from primitive tool making, (arrow) points, fish vertebrae and mammal bones are among the thousands of artifacts uncovered during the dig that are now yielding their long held secrets as Dr. Hamilton guided us in analyzing and deciphering their stories across millennia.
We were extra fortunate to have been able to outwit the weather gods by rearranging our schedule to allow us to go over to Smuttynose on Saturday morning where Dr. Hamilton led us on a tour of the dig sites and gave us a detailed overview of the buildings that once stood here, including the Hontvet House (of the infamous Smuttynose double murders) and the earliest known chapel out on the Shoals.
We were able to further explore the island a bit, go inside Haley and Gull Cottages, visit the Haley Cemetery and the site of the graves of the shipwrecked Spanish Sailors from 1813 (though no evidence exists to prove their existence) and some even hiked out to Maren’s Rock. We are so grateful for all Nate shared with us and no one will ever be able to set foot on Smuttynose again without an acute awareness of the layers of history that they are standing on.
Acknowledgement with much gratitude and appreciation must also be made to four generations of the Bussey family for without them, we would not have been able to make the trip. Thank you to our own Laury Bussey who not only coordinated the Herculean effort of getting 30+ people over to Smuttynose, but along with his son Rand, grandson Adam and great grandson Jackson, they drove the boats back and forth, and helped us in and out of them, ensuring us safe passage across the harbor.
Rand and Adam were serving as Smuttynose stewards that week, allowing us a rare look inside both Haley and Gull Cottages.
One very special aspect of our September weekend is that we are on island with three other wonderful conferences including Chamber Music, Writers in the Round (Songwriters and Poets) and The Goddesses (yoga, meditation and healing arts). It is always a delight to be surrounded not only by the beauty of the Shoals but to have a literal sound track playing in the background of our days; our ears were treated to beautiful chamber music rehearsals in the lobby, voices, guitars and mandolins wafting from open cottage windows and this year we were joined by a special group of flautists who performed for us on Sunday morning. All quite magical!
Saturday evening is always an eagerly awaited double treat as The Chamber Music group performs a world class concert in the hotel lobby worthy of any symphony hall performance while Writers in the Round holds a Coffee House during which they perform their original songs, read their poetry and even perform a bit of stand-up comedy. It’s always a difficult choice between the two venues but you cannot make a mistake and are richly rewarded whichever you attend.
Candle-light Chapel is always a high-lite and our Morning Reflections were beautifully led by Jen Anderson and Brittany Anania to whom we are most grateful. Despite the rain, there was plenty of time to visit with friends old and new on the porch, to enjoy our social hours (thank you Janet Caylor for the treats and to Sandra O’Connor and Jackie Heath for setting everything up!) and before many of us left on Sunday, we enjoyed our ice cream social, once again kindly and generously sponsored by long time and beloved Shoaler Alice Gordan who could not be with us - we thank you Alice!
A huge and heartfelt thanks to our conference chair (and ISHRA president) Ellen Koenig who once again did such a fabulous job for us and with whom I have had the best time planning our conferences over the years.
And then just like that, it was over! Many of us staying over the extra night were at the dock to wave goodbye and cheer “S-T-A-R” to those who were leaving and then the Laighton sailed off back to America. If you have ever stayed that extra night in September, you know what an odd feeling it is to see the boat sail away and then you turn around to find a completely different island than it was only a few moments before... there’s a hush... a stillness... you swear you can still hear everyone’s voices and laughter... as you walk, the sound of the gravel and crushed shells crunching underfoot becomes more noticeable to you as your senses become heightened in the fading light of the early evening. Your heart, like Hawthorne’s own 173 years before, is finally saturated with the sea breeze of the Shoals and you ready yourself for home.
You will come back!
in Star spirit,
Gretchen Gudefin, September 2025
