For decades, a forgotten error in a United States Geographical Service topographic field survey did not matter. At some point in the 1950s, an Amagansett railroad stationmaster wrongly told a U.S.G.S. fact-checker that the U-shaped stretch of water from Promised Land to the Devon Yacht Club was not Gardiner’s Bay but rather Napeague Bay.
Traditionally, Napeague Bay ran from about Goff Point to Fort Pond Bay. There is a lovely 1887 chart available in the East Hampton Library’s Digital Long Island collection that makes the boundaries clear. Between Napeague Bay and Fishers Island is Block Island Sound.
With the development of digital maps, the U.S.G.S. spatial data became the standard in the United States and so what had been a cartographic glitch spread widely. Even local land surveyors perpetuated the mistake, which was hard to fathom because pre-internet surveys, town trustee records, official deeds, and mortgage documents correctly described the body of water as Gardiner’s Bay.
One must concede that geography is fungible. Springs, or the Springs, depending on whom one asks, was once confined to an area along the northwest edges of Accabonac Harbor; past the far reach of the harbor was Eastside. Kingstown was the name for a cluster of farms and houses near the Head of Three Mile Harbor. Fireplace was the end of the road, where boats going to and from Gardiner’s Island were loaded and unloaded.
So far, I have refused to give up on fighting for Gardiner’s Bay. It is probably a losing battle, but it will give me something to look forward to as I enter my geezerhood.