Conspiracy Island is a privately owned tidal island

Tidal island

A tidal island is a piece of land that is connected to the mainland by a natural or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide. Because of the mystique surrounding tidal islands many of them have been sites of religious worship, such as Mont Saint Michel with its...

 situated in the Assonet River

Assonet River

The Assonet River is located in Bristol County, Massachusetts. It flows in a westerly direction through Freetown and joins the Taunton River near Assonet Neck in Berkley, Massachusetts. -Description:...

 off Berkley, Massachusetts

Berkley, Massachusetts

Berkley is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,749 at the 2000 census, making it the least populated town in the county.-Geography:...

.

According to the 2000 census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

, Conspiracy Island is uninhabited. In very low tides, the island is actually a peninsula, accessible across a sandy stretch of land connecting it to a nearby beach. Since this island is privately owned, the general public should not access it, even during low tide when the sandy stretch of land is accessible.

A Gazetteer of the State of Massachusetts, published in 1890, describes the history of localities in Massachusetts. In its listing for Berkley, the book states that the island may have received its name from its connection to King Philip

Metacomet

Metacomet , also known as King Philip or Metacom, or occasionally Pometacom, was a war chief or sachem of the Wampanoag Indians and their leader in King Philip's War, a widespread Native American uprising against English colonists in New England.-Biography:Metacomet was the second son of Massasoit...

, himself the namesake of King Philip's War

King Philip's War

King Philip's War, sometimes called Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, or Metacom's Rebellion, was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day southern New England and English colonists and their Native American allies in 1675–76. The war is named after the main leader of the...

. Berkley’s history also includes a legend that in 1675 on Conspiracy Island King Phillip formed his confederacy. Also in 1675 Edward Bobbet (Babbitt) returning to his home became the first white man slain by Indians in the area during the King Phillip War.

Geography

According to the Town of Berkley Board of Assessors, the island has a total area of 0.25 acres (1,011.7 m²). There is no differentiation in the description between how much is land and how much is water. It is covered predominantly in grass with a few small cedar

Juniper

Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on taxonomic viewpoint, there are between 50-67 species of juniper, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa in the Old World, and to the...

trees.

Demographics

Conspiracy Island is uninhabited and undeveloped. It is used for camping and swimming by the owners. Public access is not allowed, but is a frequent occurrence.