Nomans Land
island in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States
Nomans Land (Wampanoag: Cappoaquit; also mapped "No Man's Land," "No Mans Land," or "No Man's island"), is an uninhabited island 612 acres (248 ha) in size, located in the town of Chilmark, Dukes County, Massachusetts. It is situated about 3 miles (4.8 km) off the southwest corner of the island of Martha's Vineyard. The island is 1.6 miles (2.6 km) long east to west, and about 1 mile (1.6 km) north to south
The island was used by the United States Navy as a practice bombing range from 1943 to 1996. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has managed an "overlay" refuge on the eastern third of the island under a Joint Management Agreement between the Department of the Interior and Department of the Navy since 1975. Following an extensive surface clearance of ordnance in 1997 and 1998, the Navy transferred the island to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for use as an unstaffed wildlife refuge, which now forms Nomans Land Island National Wildlife Refuge. Due to safety risks from unexploded ordnance and its value as a wildlife habitat, the island is closed to all public use.
The island is surrounded entirely by the Atlantic Ocean. About 30% of the island is wetland, which ranges from emergent marshes to permanently flooded open water. There are four artificial ponds that were impounded many years ago by early settlers, two large freshwater ponds, and a number of smaller ponds. Common wetland plants include Virginia chain fern, cranberry, sphagnum moss, broad-leaved cattail, and common reed.
“Nomans Land” enters the record as island in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Nomans, Land and island can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Nomans Land” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Nomans, Land and island provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2028826. VIAF identifies the subject as 137145858010123022117. The Library of Congress control number is sh2005002083. Authority coordinates are 41.256, -70.816. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1943, 1996, 1975 and 1997.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Nomans Land” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.