| Fire Island today is the destination for many sun, summer, and water
seeking residents of the Greater Metropolitan Area of New York. Within
easy reach of Manhattan this 32 mile long spit of land grows from about
300 year-round residents to 40,000 during the summer. But this phenomenon
is only recent, perhaps only 30 to 40 years. Long before that Fire Island
was a desolate place where pirates, wreckers and the ghosts of their
victims roamed. The mystery of the Island starts with the mystery of its
name. The Island itself may have been called "Sictem Hackey" which
translates to "Land of the Secatogues". The Secatogues were the Indians
living in the Bay Shore area. The most popular explanation of the name
Fire Island comes from historian Richard Bayles. He asserts that the name
Fire derives from a misinterpretation or corruption of the Dutch word
"Fieve" (for five) or in another version "Fier" (or four) which actually
refers to the Islands in the vicinity of the Fire Island inlet which over
the last 300 to 500 years considerably changed their form and number.
Today two of those islands are known as East and West Fire Island. The
fact that those two islands are not close to the actual inlet can be
explained by the fact that Fire Island is extending its reach east to
west. The Fire Island light was originally built right at the edge of the
inlet in 1858. Now it stands six miles to the east of the inlet.
Another explanation of the naming of Fire Island comes no doubt from
"Fire." The Indians may have used fires to signal the mainland; so did
whalers when they needed supplies from the mainland. Possibly whalers and
fishing men built fires along the shore to guide ships at night. Local
lore also tells about wreckers that lit fires on the beach to lure unlucky
ships ashore to be plundered. The most significant fires were maintained
by the whalers who needed large fires for days to "try out" i.e. boil down
blubber into whale oil. Another version says that the Indians named the
island after the burning rashes caused by brushing up against the
plentiful Poison Ivy. Whatever the origin of the name with its many
interim variations, the name Fire Island is here to stay when in 1964
Federal law established the Fire Island National Seashore.
Fire Island was not always an island. Very early maps show the island
to be connected to the mainland in the Quogue vicinity. In 1931 the ocean
broke through to create Moriches Inlet. Around the mid 1700's perhaps as
many a six inlets may have cut through the island. And early Indian
reports indicate that the Great South Bay may have been saltwater wetlands
before the Fire Island Inlet broke through (possibly before 1690).
As evidenced by the brief documented history of the Island and the
rather brisk east to west movement ( six miles over 140 years) the island
probably will remain volatile going into the future as can be expected of
a barrier beach. Breaches will open in storms and others will close.
Manmade structures such as groins, fortified inlets, and by-passes impact
the rest of the island in ways only slowly becoming evident. For example,
Ocean Beach built two jetties in 1970. The result was that the beaches
up-drift (sand moves east to west and eventually disappears in the Hudson
canyon) appeared fine, but beaches to the west are sand-starved.
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