Meadow

This 3/4 mile view is approximately the one that John Jay, and the men and women that worked for him and his family, would have seen over 250 years ago. We are looking at 8,000 - 10,000 years of history. Glen Cove, Long Island, can be seen in the distance across the Sound, the farthest southern limit of the last glacier in the last ice age. As the glacier began to melt, it deposited sand and pebbles, creating the terminal moraine that we call Long Island. As the ice continued to recede, it created a very attractive shoreline to early humans who are known to have been on this site. There is evidence that they hunted and fished, eating fish, oysters, shellfish, deer, and small game, and that they grew crops such as corn and beans. Archaeologist Dr. Euegene Boesch has found quartz projectile points and chert flakes used to hunt and skin animals. Each spring, Native Americans would have burned the field so that new crops of grasses would sprout and attract small game and birds. We are not allowed to burn the field any longer, but it is mowed from time to time to keep it a field.

Thanks to an exceptional installation by Larry Weaner Landscape Associates, this expanse which was once overgrown with invasive mugwort is now healthy again and planted with numerous native grasses and wildflowers. Read more here about Larry Weaner's work.