Falkner Island (also called Faulkner's Island) is a 4.5 acre (18,000 m²) crescent-shaped island located in Long Island Sound 3 miles (5 km) off the coast of Guilford, Connecticut, USA.
The island is part of the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge and has the fifth-largest colony of nesting roseate terns in the northeastern United States. Originally called Falcon Island until around 1795, today it is known as Falkner Island on most charts and maps. The local population calls it Faulkner's Island.
A lighthouse was constructed in 1802 and commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson, warning of dangerous shoals and shallows in the area. This lighthouse is the second oldest in Connecticut (after New London) and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is 46 feet (14 m) tall, octagonal in cross-section and built of brownstone lined with brick. The United States Coast Guard built a three-story home at the lighthouse tower in 1871, but it was destroyed by fire on March 15, 1976. The lighthouse was automated in 1978, and continues to operate as a navigational aid to the nearby Intracoastal Waterway.
Much of the island's land mass has been lost to erosion, down to about 2.87 acres (11,600 m2) from its original 4.5 acres (18,000 m2). The United States Army Corps of Engineers recently reinforced the Eastern boundary to slow the advancing deterioration.
Read more about Falkner Island: Bibliography
Famous quotes containing the word island:
“The shifting islands! who would not be willing that his house should be undermined by such a foe! The inhabitant of an island can tell what currents formed the land which he cultivates; and his earth is still being created or destroyed. There before his door, perchance, still empties the stream which brought down the material of his farm ages before, and is still bringing it down or washing it away,—the graceful, gentle robber!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)