Hog Island (New York)

Hog Island was a set of two islands off Long Island, New York, one shown on the map is the present day Barnum Island, part of Island Park, New York. The other reportedly existed to the south of Long Beach and Rockaway Beach.

Hog Island was a pig-shaped mile-long (1600 meter) barrier island destroyed by a major hurricane. It was off the southern coast of the Rockaways.

History

Development

The Island Park "Hog Island" was used by the Indians to raise hogs. It later became a small farming area. In the 1874, Sarah Ann Baldwin Barnum (the wife of Peter Crosby Barnum, a clothier, not P.T. Barnum of circus fame) outwitted a syndicate and purchased Barnum Island for use as an alms house. She had, just days before a deadline, crossed to the island and purchased the existing farm for $13,360 of her own money, and re-sold it to the county (then Queens County, of which at the time the present-day Nassau County was a part) for the same amount. This island still exists today as part of both the Village of Island Park and the Town of Hempstead. [http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-past418,0,5407611.story?coll=ny-lihistory-navigation]

Destruction

On the night of August 23 1893, a devastating Category 2 hurricane made landfall. By the following morning, August 24, Hog Island had mostly disappeared. New York City's leading hurricane historian, Nicholas Coch, a professor of coastal geology at Queens College, believes that this has been the only reported incidence of the removal of an entire island by a hurricane. [http://www.nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=13427]

During the same hurricane, Coney Island reported 30 foot (9 meter) waves which came inland as far as 200 yards (180 meters), destroying the elevated railroad. The East River rose above the sea wall in the Astoria district. Many residents in City of Brooklyn reported water in the streets waist high. Fact|date=February 2007

Restoration

In the mid 1990's, after the nor'easters of December 1992 and March 1993 heavily damaged the coast of Rockaway, the Army Corps of Engineers began rebuilding the beaches using dredges close to shore. Fact|Mega Disasters: New York Hurricane 2006 History Channel|date=March 2007

Research

Professor Nicholas Coch of Queens College, along with local undergraduate students, was observing the replenishing of the beaches along Rockaway when they noticed peculiar items along the coast. The group uncovered hundreds of different artifacts including whiskey bottles, beer mugs, and even a hurricane lamp. The majority of the items were dated back around the late 19th Century. Curious about their findings, the group then started to unravel the history of Hog Island. [http://www.nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=13427]

Analysis

The city of New York has averaged a major hurricane approximately every 70 to 80 years throughout its history. [http://www.nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=13427]

Should the city be directly hit by another hurricane of the intensity of the one in 1893 which destroyed Hog Island, the damages are likely to be enormous. [http://www.nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=13427]

Articles

The Big One by Aaron Naparstek, The New York Press, July 20, 2005, http://www.nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=13427