Little Fort Island, a small coastal island outside of Harrington, Maine, was purchased sight-unseen by Holt and Smithson on September 30, 1971. Smithson made two drawings outlining potential projects for the island before he made a site visit. However, when he arrived at Little Fort Island, Smithson decided not to proceed with the meandering earthwork proposals as he felt the landscape was too picturesque.

This drawing imagines a curving path made of canals and a jetty that connects two landmasses. The path takes form as water carving through land, and earth bridging across water—blurring the boundary between land and sea. In Meandering Island (Little Fort Island Maine) the ocean is not merely a backdrop; it is a formal component of the earthwork, a subject in its own right seeking union with itself across the interruption of land.

Little Fort Island is now the site of Holt/Smithson Foundation's first Artist Commission: The Island Project: Point of Departure. In the spirit of Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson, The Island Project sets out to develop innovative ways of exploring our relationship with the planet. The five invited artists will think with Holt/Smithson Foundation on and off location to consider how this island site can be a point of departure to generate ideas, raise questions, and inspire artworks. Initiated in 2021, The Island Project invites artists Tacita Dean, Renée Green, Sky Hopinka, Joan Jonas, and Oscar Santillán to develop proposals responding to Little Fort Island over the coming years.