Geography
The island is 3,318 acres (13 km2) approximately 5 square miles (13 km2), in size. It includes more than 1,000 acres (4 km²) of old growth forest and another 1,000 acres (4 km²) of meadows. Many of the buildings date back to the 17th century. In 1989, the island was said to be worth $125 million.
The island has the largest stand of white oak in the American Northeast. Other trees include swamp maple, wild cherry and birch. The island is home to New York state's largest colony of ospreys, and is one of the few locations in the world where they build their nests on the ground, as there are no natural predators to the osprey on the island.
Its structures include the oldest surviving wood-frame structure in New York state, a carpenter's shed built there in 1639, as well as a private airstrip on the south side of the island.
Read more about this topic: Gardiners Island
Famous quotes containing the word geography:
“The California fever is not likely to take us off.... There is neither romance nor glory in digging for gold after the manner of the pictures in the geography of diamond washing in Brazil.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and Boston Bay, you think paltry places, and the ear loves names of foreign and classic topography. But here we are; and, if we tarry a little, we may come to learn that here is best. See to it, only, that thyself is here;—and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels, and the Supreme Being, shall not absent from the chamber where thou sittest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Ktaadn, near which we were to pass the next day, is said to mean “Highest Land.” So much geography is there in their names.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)