Plum Island (New York) - History

History

The island was called Manittuwond by the Native American Pequot Nation. Plum Island was probably first seen by Europeans in 1614 when Adriaen Block, a Dutchman employed by the Dutch West India Company, charted the area. The island was named from the beach plums that grow along the shores, and an old Dutch map made about 1640 shows the name “Pruym Eyelant” (Plum Island). In 1659 the little island was purchased by Samuel Willis III, son of the Governor of Connecticut, from Wyandanch, the ruling local Indian Chieftain of Long Island, for a coat, a barrel of biscuits and 100 fishhooks.

On August 11, 1775, General David Wooster dispatched 120 soldiers to the island, then known as Plumb Island, who were immediately fired upon by the British. After firing a single return volley the soldiers retreated back to Long Island. Although no casualties were reported, this brief skirmish is believed to have represented at least one American military first, the first amphibious assault by an American army.

The historic Plum Island Lighthouse is located at the west end of the island. The first lighthouses was constructed in 1787. The lighthouse marked turbulent tidal waters and shoals.

After passing through the possession of more than 20 families, in 1899, the island was purchased by the United States Government about the time of the Spanish American War for approximately $90,000. A Coast Artillery post, later known as Fort Terry, was established there. During World War II it was activated as an anti-submarine base and deactivated after World War II; it was later reactivated and assigned to the Army Chemical Corps.

In 1954 the United States Department of Agriculture established the Plum Island Animal Disease Center. The center conducts research on animal pathogens to protect farmers, ranchers, and the national food supply. Because of the nature of the research, access to the island and the research facility is restricted.

In 2003, the Department of Homeland Security took ownership of the island and facilities; the Department of Agriculture continues to work on the island.

Plum Island was considered a potential site for a new high-security animal disease lab, NBAF (National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility). In September 2008, the U.S. Congress passed a law that directed the General Services Administration to close the animal disease center and to sell the island to the public, and to use the proceeds towards the construction of NBAF, if it were decided that NBAF would be built elsewhere. In January 2009, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security chose the city of Manhattan, Kansas, as the site for NBAF, and decided to move the animal disease center there as well. However, the decline in real estate values stemming from the subprime mortgage crisis and late-2000s recession caused the sale of the island to become no longer viable. Because the proceeds from selling the island were needed to construct the new facility in Kansas, the project was effectively cancelled for the short term when the 2013 federal budget request contained no funding for the new facility.

As of May 2011, the U.S government is in process of creating an Environmental Impact Statement for the island (expected by late 2011), whose objective, among others, is to determine whether the impact of 60 years of animal testing on the island constitutes a threat to public health that could preclude the sale. The government has not performed a formal appraisal of the island yet. The value of an island of this size and location was estimated to be in the $50 to $80 million range; however, due to the need of extensive cleanup, the stigma of being a former site of a disease lab, and potential land use restrictions, opponents of sale expressed skepticism that the sale of the island could generate any profit at all, let alone be able to finance the construction of NBAF.

In June 2012 the Southold Historical Society announced that it was going to publish a detailed history of the Island from the period of colonial settlement through modern times. The book, according to the Society, will correct a number of errors and mistakes in previous historical examinations and provide the first complete, annotated history of the Island to date. The Society has stated further that it is currently looking for original documents and images relating to the historic structures and families that once occupied Plum Island.