125 Years Ago - 1897
From The East Hampton Star, August 13
A rider over the Bridgehampton bicycle path on Sunday last, sat down in a shady place to rest, and in the short space of fifteen minutes counted forty-seven passing bicycles. Very few people have any idea of the vast number of wheels that pass over that path every day.
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Clinton Cycle club made another success on Wednesday evening, when it presented “The Arabian Nights.” It was a fun night, and as a result of one of the largest advance sales of seats ever known here, the hall was filled, and the audience was an appreciative one. Of course Mr. and Mrs. Lyman were the backbone of the play, and their acting is so well known here that we need not attempt to describe it.
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A few East Hampton young men are struck with the idea of going to the Klondike gold fields. There are also a few in Southampton who have the fever. It is more than probable that a company will be formed of able-bodied men from both places which will start for Alaska next Spring.
100 Years Ago - 1922
From The East Hampton Star, August 11
The sloop the J.B.H., which ran aground on a sand bar near the Point of Woods Coast Guard station, and which was later seized by Federal authorities, is the same boat, it is said, that for nearly a week lay off the Promised Land dock, about three weeks ago. This information was obtained this week from one of the county officials.
Late one night about three weeks ago, Nightwatchman Gilbert saw three heavily loaded trucks pass through the village, headed west. He became suspicious of their contents and Chief Morford was notified.
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What was considered the fastest game of polo ever played on the East Hampton polo field was played last Sunday afternoon. The boxes were filled with polo enthusiasts who watched the game proceed through the six periods with great excitement and interest. At the end of the sixth period the score was five to five. The players and their mounts were exhausted, so it was decided to end the game leaving the score tied.
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“The Call of the Desert” is the name of the picture now being produced on the sand hills on Napeague Beach, between Montauk and Amagansett. The picture is being produced by the Pyramid Corporation with Violet Heming and Sheldon Lewis starring. Sam Smallwood is directing.
The company, including over one hundred men and women, four camels, goats and thirty-five horses, all imported especially for this production, are camped in canvas tents on the sand hills. A more fitting setting could not be imagined.
75 Years Ago - 1947
From The East Hampton Star, August 14
State, county and town highway officials having jurisdiction over roads in farm areas in Nassau and Suffolk counties this week were sent copies of a recent resolution adopted by the Roadside Committee of the Long Island Association urging the enforcement of local ordinances against trespassers on local and state rights-of-way.
The resolution, passed by a unanimous vote at a meeting at Smithtown on July 24th, calls attention to the fact that many farmers trespass on these rights-of-way with their machinery, cutting grass-grown roadsides and damaging scenic roadsides, the development of which the Committee has fostered for years.
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Supervisor Herbert L. Mulford, Jr. was renominated to head the Republican town ticket at the annual town Republican convention held Saturday night at the Methodist Church Hall. The convention was called by Commissioner Perry B. Duryea, town chairman, and George Dippel, of Sag Harbor, was chosen to preside as chairman of the meeting.
No Democratic convention has been held and this will mark the second election that Supervisor Mulford has had no competition.
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Local potato growers suspect dirty politics — a “smear” campaign against Long Island tubers being carried on by their potato-growing rival, the State of Maine. Argentine buyers, whom they had hoped would take over large shipments of Long Island potatoes, are being scared off, they fear. It is rumored that Senator Brewster, of Maine, the same who figured in the Howard Hughes investigation in Washington, warned South American buyers that the Long Island crop was dangerous, infested with a parasite, and should not be touched.
50 Years Ago - 1972
From The East Hampton Star, August 10
The General Services Administration, having completed a survey of the Montauk Air Force Station, has recommended that 123 of the station’s 308 acres be declared in excess of what is required there by the Department of Defense. Representatives of the Administration visited the base early in May, under a Presidential order calling for the periodic appraisal of Federal land, to determine how much of it was actually needed.
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The East Hampton Town Board withheld action last Friday following an hour-long public hearing on whether to remove apartments as an allowed use from multiple dwelling zones. Speakers fell into a familiar pattern: organizations concerned with the environment and attorneys representing vested interests, both opposed the recommendation, but for different reasons.
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Six intrepid Nassau County policemen left Tuesday morning from the Captain’s Marina on Lake Montauk, for Sheepshead Bay; a distance of about 100 miles as the crow flies or the car drives, but they are doing neither.
They are swimming.
The men, who are taking the northerly route (Block Island Sound, Gardiner’s Bay, Shinnecock, Moriches, behind Fire Island and onto far Rockaway Inlet), are making the swim “because it’s never been done before,” and also because success would mean a permanent niche in swimming’s hall of fame in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
25 Years Ago - 1997
From The East Hampton Star, August 14
Next Thursday, the East Hampton Town Board will take public comment on a proposal that would, if adopted, drastically change how the town reviews development along the waterfront.
Since the waterfront is considered both more valuable and more vulnerable than inland property and since there are some 110 miles of shoreline in the town, the proposal is no small matter.
Comment will be heard at a public hearing to begin at 7:30 p.m. in Town Hall on a Town Trustees plan to undertake sole environmental review of all building projects and other uses of waterfront and bottomland they own.
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Southampton Town announced this week that it and Suffolk County would purchase most of the defunct Bridgehampton Winery for $1,799,580.
The deal will add just over 69 acres to the town’s Long Pond Greenbelt and end plans, pursued by JOG Associates, the property’s owner, to transform it into a nine-hole golf course and eight-lot residential subdivision.
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It may be the charm for scaring the black birds and cowbirds out of the cornfields, but the Multi-Bang propane cannon, a noisemaker that can be heard a mile away, does not win points with the neighbors.
When Brenndon Struk set up the noisemaker behind the Amagansett Farmers Market last week, complaints from those in the line of fire weren’t far behind.
The sounds could be heard from back porches, front steps, private gardens, and nearby farms.
