Way at the end of this breakwater(?) is a navigation light. [Squint. And use your imagination?]
From what I have read these white pines were logged in the 1830s and 1840s—a darned long time ago. After the trees were cut and the logs removed, the remaining slash dried and burned, often with very hot fires leaving the already nutrient-poor sandy soils even more nutrient poor. Even today: rotting stumps and no forest.