20/5/13 – The Hamptons Day 2 and the Montauk Lighthouse

Breakfast at the Butler’s Manor was sumptuous – freshly squeezed orange juice, compote of fruit, fresh blueberry muffins, french toast and a big pot of strong tea. We met some lovely people from Argentina who had come out here to meet the parents of their daughter’s fiancé and a honeymooning couple from Germany. Peter was in his element speaking German to the newlyweds and talking rugby to the Argentineans. I left him to it and just concentrated on the food, which was delicious.

After breakfast we packed the car and set off into the still thick fog to try to find our way out to Montauk. On the way there we passed through several little villages with divine little houses (all behind white picket fences) but it was only after we took a right off the main road at Lily Pond Lane to go see some of the exclusive homes that we started to see the sort of over the top mansion houses for which the Hamptons are justly famous (or should that be infamous?)

This was some serious real estate! Who would have thought that convicted felon and designer Martha Stewart would still be able to afford such a big house? I was joking with Peter that it seemed appropriate that most of these ‘ginormous’ properties were separated from the road and their neighbours by thick rows of conifers – after all it was the profits from the exploitation of ‘hedge’ funds that had supplied the buckets of money required to build and maintain these palaces.

 

We stopped at Main Beach in east Hampton to see the Atlantic, but unfortunately it was covered in fog! We were hugely amused when we read the sign at the entrance to the beach carpark which informed us that one cannot park at the beach unless one has a parking ticket issued by the village police department (at the cost of $40 for the day and $300 for the summer). But their cost, though steep, is not the real issue. The number of tickets available is strictly limited by the council. Tickets are made available to rate payers first and only if there are some left over after the rate payers have had their pick can ‘visitors’ even apply to buy one. All the tickets usually sell out before the end of January.

What Aussie worth his salt would pay $40 to park at the beach, especially one with no surf and freezing cold water! So after a short walk on the beach (without paying), we continued north-east along the one long road to Montauk (too bad if there was a major incident and the road was closed as the traffic - it would be worse than St Tropez!).

We drove past he famous ‘Lobster Roll’ stall and the nearly famous ‘Shrimp Roll’ stall across the road and, fortunately for us, the fog rolled back just as we arrived in Montauk, affording us memorable view of the most easterly aspect of NY State at the Montauk Lighthouse.  

The Montauk lighthouse has a lot of history. Wikipedia tells me that construction of the lighthouse was authorized by the Second United States Congress, under President George Washington on April 12, 1792. Construction began on June 7, 1796, and was completed on November 5, 1796. It was the first public works project undertaken by the newly formed federal government of the United States of America. Sometime in early April 1797 lighthouse keeper Jacob Hand lit the wicks in the lamps in the tower and the lighthouse began operation. Pirate Captain Kidd was said to have buried treasure at the foot of the lighthouse around 1799 at two ponds which today are called the "Money Ponds."

Camp Wikoff was established at the foot of the lighthouse in 1898 and was used to quarantine 29,000 soldiers, including Theodore Roosevelt and his famous Rough Riders, at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War to prevent the spread of malaria, yellow fever and other tropical diseases. The camp was named in honour of Col. Charles A. Wikoff, commander of the 22d United States Infantry, who was the first officer killed in the Cuban campaign.

In addition to the Rough Riders, other notable units at Camp Wikoff included the all-black troops of the 9th and 10th Cavalry units. These ''Buffalo Soldiers,'' fresh from the Indian wars, had taken part in the attack on San Juan Hill alongside Roosevelt's First United States Voluntary Cavalry Regiment.

Aside from malaria, there were cases of yellow fever, dysentery and other illnesses. Many of the men suffered from general exhaustion and were in poor condition upon returning home, some twenty pounds lighter. Everyone received fresh food and most were nourished back to their normal health.

Although he didn't have to, Roosevelt made a point of staying with his men at Camp Wikoff during their quarantine. He did make occasional visits to his Sagamore Hill home, to see his wife and children. He also made a few trips to New York City to lay the groundwork for his successful run for governor later that year.

 

The lighthouse was operated by civilian keepers until World War II. However during World War II, the lighthouse was taken over by the U.S. Army as part of the Eastern Coastal Defence Shield. The last three civilian lighthouse keepers departed in the spring of 1943. Adjacent to the lighthouse, Camp Hero was opened by the Army in 1942 and was heavily fortified with huge guns during the war. Those gun emplacements and the associated concrete observation bunkers (which are also at nearby Shadmoor State Park) have now fallen into the sea, but their remains are still visible. In 1946 the United States Coast Guard took over maintenance of the lighthouse and manually operated it until the station was automated on February 3, 1987. It was the first lighthouse in New York State, and is the fourth-oldest active lighthouse in the United States.

The tower is 110' 6" high. The current light, installed in July 2001, is equivalent to approximately 290,000 candle power, flashes every 5 seconds and can be seen a distance of 17 nautical miles (31 km). The tower was originally all white. Its single brown stripe was added in 1899. A fourth order fixed red range light was added to the watchdeck of the tower in 1903 to warn of Shagwong Reef, a navigational hazard about 3½ miles northwest of the lighthouse.

It was severely damaged in the hurricane of September 21, 1938 and removed on July 1, 1940 when the lighthouse was electrified. When the tower was first built on Turtle Hill it was 300 feet (90 m) from the edge of the cliff; but erosion since then means that it is now only about 100 feet (30 m) away from the edge.  After World War II the United States Army Corps of Engineers built a seawall at its base, but the erosion continued.

The threat to the lighthouse was so great that the Coast Guard actually considered tearing down the lighthouse in 1967 and replacing it with a steel tower considerably further back from the edge of the bluff. In the wake of protests over the announced dismantling of the tower, Congressman Michael Forbes proposed a bill to the United States Congress to hand over the Lighthouse to the Montauk Historical Society so that it could be preserved. The bill was passed. But how to save the lighthouse?

 

The solution, when it finally appeared, came from a most unlikely source. A short, eccentric but very rich ‘little old lady’! Mrs Giorgina Reid (1908–2001), a textile designer who had saved her Rocky Point, New York cottage from collapse by building a simple set of terraces in the gullies of the bluff, proposed to the Montauk Historical Society that they do the same at Montauk Point. Reid's patented Reed-Trench Terracing System called for building terrace platforms made of various beach debris—notably reeds.

The system (along with further strengthening of the rocks at the bluff toe) appears to have worked and to have stemmed the erosion. Mrs Reid patented the process, wrote an article about it titled it ‘How to Hold up a Bank’ and received a personal letter of thanks and commendation from President Reagan.

The lighthouse was automated on February 3, 1987, and in May of that year the lighthouse museum opened to the public, operated by the Montauk Historical Society, who leased the property from the US Coast Guard for that purpose.

On September 30, 1996 President Bill Clinton signed legislation transferring the lighthouse property over to the Montauk Historical Society. On March 5, 2012 United States Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar officially designated the lighthouse as a National Historic Landmark; only the 13th site on Long Island and the 11th lighthouse in the country to be so named.

On the way home we stopped in at the Montauk fishing boat harbour for a wonderful waterfront lunch of mussels in white wine and garlic which was served with crusty toast. How joyful it was to sit in the sun (the fog having now lifted) after all of the snow and rain we had experienced in the city over the past few months.