It is not hard to understand why Fire Islanders with a knowledge of history of the island would dislike Robert Moses. He did, after all, try to jam a four-lane highway down the center of their island in spite of … Full Story
The Two Other Halves: William Floyd’s Wives
General William Floyd (1734-1821), one of only 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, had two homes and two wives. The first home is the William Floyd Estate in Mastic, part of the Fire Island National Seashore. His first wife … Full Story
Shinnecock’s Missing Light
Necessity builds lighthouses. Progress replaces them. Heritage preserves them. At one point there were three proud lighthouses standing guard over the south shore of Long Island: Fire Island Lighthouse, Montauk Lighthouse, and the Shinnecock Lighthouse. Today only two remain. Where … Full Story
Wild Things: Maurice Sendak on Fire Island
Maurice Sendak is the author of the 1964 Caldecott Award winning children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are.” The book remains number three on the top 10 bestselling children’s books of all time.1 You may have read it yourself. And … Full Story
The Bizarre History of the Smith Point Bridge
Fire Island is accessible by boat or by bridges at either end. The more well-known of the two bridges is the Fire Island Inlet Bridge, sometimes incorrectly referred to as the Robert Moses Bridge because it is a continuation of … Full Story
Stonewall Revolution: The Best and Worst of Times
Who really knows why it all happened? Probably no one, not even those who were there. At least that’s how the story of the Stonewall riots continues to be told. But something was in the air that sweltering night at … Full Story
The Miraculous Rescue of the “U.S.S. Northern Pacific”
By Thomas McGann No one knows how many wrecks have occurred off Fire Island’s shores, some horrific, some forgotten to history, but the most miraculous rescue must be that of the “U.S.S. Northern Pacific,” which ran aground on New Year’s … Full Story
O Whitman! My Whitman!
By Thomas McGann Happy birthday, Walt Whitman, born 200 years ago, May 31, 1819. It is of thee we sing! We celebrate your birth! “Starting from fish-shape Paumanok, where [you were] born, well-begotten, and rais’d by a perfect mother…isle of … Full Story
The Hurricane of ’38
Personal Stories from Fire Island By Thomas McGann The hurricane hit Fire Island around 2:30 p.m. The eye was about 50 miles wide, the storm itself about 500 miles across. High tide was even higher than usual because of the … Full Story
Wolcott Gibbs: F.I. mellows a curmudgeon
History By Thomas McGann “Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind,” reads Wolcott Gibbs’ parody of Time magazine, an article that is still highly touted, so much so that it tends to obscure much of what else he wrote, and … Full Story