Montauk Point State Park is a 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 point of the South Fork of Long Island, and thus also of New York State.
History The park contains the Montauk Point Light, which was authorized by the Second Congress, under President George Washington in 1792. Construction began on June 7, 1796 and was completed on November 5, 1796. During World War II, the adjacent Camp Hero was developed as a coastal defense installation, with two 16-inch gun emplacements and a 6-inch gun emplacement. The installation was later transferred to the Air Force and eventually decommissioned in 1982.
Those gun emplacements and concrete observation bunkers (which are also at nearby Shadmoor State Park and Camp Hero State Park) are still visible.
On August 24, 1839, the Spanish schooner Amistad,, which had been seized by a group of captive Africans, was captured by the U.S. brig Washington off Montauk Point. Sengbe Pieh and several companions who had gone ashore were captured there. The vessel was subsequently taken to New London, Connecticut, while the Africans were imprisoned in New Haven. Their legal case ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where former president John Quincy Adams argued on their behalf; in 1841 the Court ruled that they had been illegally enslaved and were free.
Park description Montauk Point State Park features picnic tables, a food concession, playground, fishing, seasonal hunting, and trails for hiking and cross-country skiing.
Suffolk Transit's S94 route also serves the park seasonally connecting it with Montauk Village. The park is located at the end of New York State Route 27.
In Literature A memory of this district is related in Lydia Sigourney's poem Montauk Point, published in her Scenes in my Native Land, 1845.
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See also List of New York state parks Lighthouses in the United States Montauk Point land claim
References
External links
New York State Parks: Montauk Point State Park Montauklighthouse.com National Park Service List of New York Lighthouses