Fort Pond Bay is a bay off Long Island Sound at Montauk, New York that was site of the first port on the end of Long Island. The bay has a long naval and civilian history.
Fort Pond Bay is a bay off Long Island Sound at Montauk, New York that was site of the first port on the end of Long Island. The bay has a long naval and civilian history.
Fort Pond Bay was first listed by name in a 1655 map published in 1680 by John Scott which makes note of a Montaukett Native-American fort on its banks.
Early settlers in the area raised cattle and sheep on the bluffs above the bay. During the American Revolutionary War during the Siege of Boston British warships sailed into the bay in 1775. Local militia under Captain John Dayton, feigned they had more men than they had, turning their coats inside out as they marched back and forth on top of a high hill to the south. The tactic is called Dayton's Ruse. [1]
Long Island was occupied throughout the war and the bay was used by the British for their blockade of Connecticut. In 1781 HMS Culloden ran aground while pursuing a French frigate during a January storm. The ship, which survived the initial ground hit a rock and had to be scuttled in the bay at Culloden Point and burned with its canons thrown overboard. Its debris field and wreck site is now the only underwater park on Long Island.
In the late 18th century, the small fishing village of Montauk was established at the southeast corner of the bay.
In 1839 the slave ship Amistad anchored in bay (also at Culloden Point) when the surviving crew tried to convince their revolted slave captors that they had returned to Africa as they went for provisions in the village of Montauk. The ship was seized by the USS Washington in the bay.
In the 1890s, Austin Corbin extended the Long Island Rail Road from Bridgehampton, New York to the Montauk fishing village (the line extension was called the Fort Pond Railway). His friend Arthur Bensen purchased 10,000 acres (40 km2) of Montaukett land around the village and the LIRR began advertising that it could cut a day off ship travel by docking in Montauk and taking the train rather than going to New York. Corbin built a steel pier into pond for the overseas ships (even as the Corps of Engineers continued to caution against using the bay because of rocks.
The dream was never to materialize and the U.S. Army bought the land for Camp Wikoff. Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders were to come by transport into the bay following the Spanish–American War at the camp to be quarantined over concerns about yellow fever.
The fishing village was obliterated in the storm of the Great Hurricane of 1938. The Navy took over the area for a seaplane and dirigible base during World War II (the dock is still in use). The Montauk fishing village was moved a mile south closer to the Atlantic Ocean.
During the years after World War II, the bay ceased to be used by most boats because of flooding and rocks. Boats now dock in the dredged Lake Montauk. In the 1960s the bluffs above the bay were used to build Leisurama homes as inexpensive second homes that had been inspired by the Kitchen Debate between Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev.
Coordinates: 41°03′03″N71°58′10″W / 41.050748°N 71.969547°W
Amagansett is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet by the same name in the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2010 United States Census, the CDP population was 1,165. Amagansett hamlet was founded in 1680.
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Montauk is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, on the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2020 United States census, the CDP's population was 4,318.
The Village of East Hampton is a village in Suffolk County, New York. It is located in the town of East Hampton on the South Fork of eastern Long Island. The population was 1,083 at the time of the 2010 census, 251 less than in the year 2000. It is a center of the summer resort and upscale locality at the East End of Long Island known as The Hamptons and is generally considered one of the area's two most prestigious communities.
Gardiner's Island is a small island in the Town of East Hampton, New York, in Eastern Suffolk County. It is located in Gardiner's Bay between the two peninsulas at the east end of Long Island. It is 6 miles (9.7 km) long, 3 miles (4.8 km) wide and has 27 miles (43 km) of coastline.
The Town of East Hampton is located in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, at the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. It is the easternmost town in the state of New York. At the time of the 2020 United States census, it had a total population of 28,385.
Montauk Point State Park is a 862-acre (3.49 km2) state park located in the hamlet of Montauk, at the eastern tip of Long Island in the Town of East Hampton, Suffolk County, New York. Montauk Point is the easternmost extremity of the South Fork of Long Island, and thus also of New York State.
Montauk Highway is an east–west road extending for 95 miles (153 km) across the southern shore of Long Island in Suffolk County, New York, in the United States. It extends from the Nassau County line in Amityville, where it connects to Merrick Road, to Montauk Point State Park at the very eastern end of Long Island in Montauk. The highway is known by several designations along its routing, primarily New York State Route 27A (NY 27A) from the county line to Oakdale and NY 27 east of Southampton. The portion of Montauk Highway between Oakdale and Southampton is mostly county-maintained as County Route 80 and County Route 85.
Montauk Air Force Station was a US military base at Montauk Point on the eastern tip of Long Island, New York. It was decommissioned in 1981 and is now owned by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation as Camp Hero State Park.
The Montaukett ("Metoac"), more commonly known as Montauk are an Algonquian-speaking Native American people from the eastern and central sections of Long Island, New York.
Austin Corbin was a 19th-century American banking and railroad entrepreneur. He consolidated the rail lines on Long Island, bringing them under the profitable umbrella of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). He was the owner of Manhattan Beach, a resort in Brooklyn, New York City, from which he barred Jews. He was also the owner of the Sunnyside Plantation in Chicot County, Arkansas, from 1886 to his death in 1896, where he used convict laborers and later brought Italian immigrants to work on the land.
Montauk County Park, formerly known as Theodore Roosevelt County Park, is located approximately three miles (4.8 km) east of Montauk, New York. The park is 1,157 acres (4.68 km2) in size, running from Montauk Highway north to Block Island Sound and is bordered on the east by Montauk Point State Park.
Culloden Point is a small peninsula north of Montauk, New York, that marks the east entrance to Fort Pond Bay from Gardiners Bay.
Freetown is an area in East Hampton (town), New York originally inhabited by freed slaves and Native Americans.
Lake Montauk is a 900-acre artificial embayment in Montauk, New York that is home to the largest commercial and sporting fish fleets in the state of New York.
Montauk is the terminus of the Montauk Branch of the Long Island Rail Road, as well as the easternmost railroad station on Long Island and in New York state. The station is located on Edgemere Street and Fort Pond Road west of Montauk Harbor, New York.
FV Pelican was a party boat, or head boat, operating out of Montauk, New York, which capsized on September 1, 1951, killing 45 passengers and crew, including the captain Eddie Carroll.
The Montauk Point land claim was a series of three lawsuits brought by Chief Wyandank Pharaoh, nephew of the Stephen Talkhouse who died in the same year (1879) that the tribe lost the last remaining vestige of their territory in the New York state courts, claiming Montauk Point on behalf of the Montaukett Indians, against the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and its predecessors in title.
The Hilda Lindley House is a former U.S. Army fire control station in Indian Field in Montauk, New York. The house is named for the woman who lived there and saved Indian Field from development in the 1970s, but who had her house taken from her by Suffolk County as a result.
Poggatacut also known as Youghco or Poggatticut, was sachem of the Manhasset Indian people of Shelter Island, New York and elder brother to Montaukett Sachem Wyandanch. Sachem Poggatacut and his wife Aswaw granted possession to Lion Gardiner for Gardiners Island in 1639. It was conveyed when they deeded Manchonat, an Island between the north and south fork in exchange for goods and alliance. By 1644 he had united the Corchaug, Shinnecock, Manhassets and Montaukett before retreating as Grand Sachem to his redoubt on Shelter Island, relinquishing control over the tribes to his younger brother, sachem Wyandanch. As “Sachem of Paumanacke", as Long Island was called, he was empowered to make treaties for the Montauketts.
