Note - Reposting this, from a while back, as as soon as I have time to blog again (it's March, always rough) I'm going to be posting about a hike Sebago did here last weekend, and a wonderful afternoon book talk by the author of a really amazing work of historical fiction set in the same area.
Bonus Dead Horse Bay post:
Yesterday, my friend Jeff K shared a ABC News Feature about Dead Horse Bay in the comments on my post about our Black Friday hike there. I watched the feature last night and had to share. It give details and angles that are quite new to me (for starters, I'd never heard the Robert Moses aspect before, and I never in a million years would've imagined that there was any issue with beachcombing there). It's completely fascinating, and I particularly enjoyed it when a familiar face appeared on screen - there's an appearance by Ranger Lincoln from Floyd Bennett Field, who led the excellent Historic Aircraft Restoration Project tour that Sebago members joined this summer.
Click here to view.
Thank you so much for sharing this, Jeff!
4 comments:
My husband and I watched the entire video. My parents (and the baby me) moved to the Bronx in 1953 - I certainly know who Robert Moses was (anyone who grew up in NYC in the 50's does!) but I never knew this, and I never knew about Dead Horse Bay or its history. As someone who majored in cultural anthropology, I tend to side with the anthropologists rather than the artists - I hope a compromise can be found that benefits all parties.
If there was any evidence that anyone was doing any formal research I think it would be easier to convince the artists and other beachcombers not to collect as much. That professor should go to work on people at the Museum of the City of New York or someplace like that to do something. I've never seen anything like that, and there's just so much stuff there that, as I said, it never would've occurred to me that taking a thing or two would be a problem.
It would actually be really interesting, I would love to see a formal museum exhibit about Dead Horse Bay and the sort of stuff you find there.
Or the professor's already done some work like that - I wonder if he could expand it, maybe talk to the folks at Floyd Bennett and see if they might have room for an exhibit at Ryan Center or someplace?
Thank you for the thank you! I found that video really evocative and helped those of us who are familiar with the area to remember how special it is, and haunted. Maybe NPS could set up a collection box for interesting stuff that people don't really want to drag home and wash, but are of special interest to urban archeologists. Like the Thames model, it wouldn't cost anything and would encourage crowd-sourcing of yet another data-heavy and money-poor field.
I was struck by all the glass and NO PLASTIC. Times change and garbage reflects that. Ours will certainly look different for a long time to come.
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