17th century Montauk derives its name from the
Montaukett tribe, an
Algonquian-speaking tribe who lived in the area. In 1614,
Dutch explorer Adriaen Block encountered the tribe at Montauk Point, which he named '''', or "Point of the Fishers". Two decades later, in 1637, the Montauketts sided for their own protection with the New England settlers in the
Pequot War in Connecticut. In the aftermath the Montauketts were to sell
Gardiners Island. In 1648 what would become the Town of Easthampton (first Maidstone) was sold to settlers by the colony of
Connecticut and the colony of
New Haven while retaining the lands to the east, from the hills rising above where the first fort stood (
Napeague, New York) to Montauk Point. The western boundary of today's
Hither Hills State Park is also known as the 1648 purchase line. In 1653, the
Narragansett-Montaukett War started.
Narragansetts under
Ninigret attacked and burned the Montaukett village, killing 30 and capturing one of Chief Wyandanch's daughters. The daughter was recovered with the aid of
Lion Gardiner (who in turn was given a large portion of
Smithtown, New York in appreciation). The Montauketts, ravaged by
smallpox and fearing extermination by the
Narragansetts, were provided temporary refuge by white settlers in East Hampton. Many short but famous battles ensued. The skirmishes ended in 1657. Fort Pond Bay derives its name from a Montaukett "fort" on its shore. A deed was issued in 1661 titled "Ye deed of Guift" which granted all of the lands east of Fort Pond to be for the common use of both the indigenous people and the townsmen. Further purchase agreements were entered into in 1661, 1672 and 1686, that, among other things, allowed a group of Easthampton townsmen to graze cattle on the Montaukett lands. While some lands were protected in the agreements as forest land, for the most part Montauk was maintained by the townsmen as a private livestock and fisheries operation. As a result, the site now known as Deep Hollow Ranch is considered the oldest
cattle ranch in the United States. In 1660, Wyandanch's widow sold all of Montauk from Napeague to the tip of the island for 100 pounds to be paid in 10 equal installments of "
Indian corn or good
wampum at six to a penny". But the tribe was to be permitted to stay on the land, to hunt and fish at will there, and to harvest the tails and fins of whales that washed up dead on the East Hampton shores. Town officials who bought the land were to file for reimbursement for the
rum with which they had plied the tribe. The tribe was to continue residence until the 19th century in the area around Big Reed Pond in what was to be called "Indian Fields". In 1686,
Governor of New York Thomas Dongan issued a
patent creating the governing system for East Hampton. The Dongan Patent extended from "bounds beginning from the East limits of the bounds of Southampton ... East to the utmost extent of the Island", with a provision of trusteeship for native-owned lands "commonly called Montauk" that included yearly
socage payment of "the sum of one Lamb, or the value thereof in current money of this province" by the Montaukett owners.
18th century During the
Siege of Boston in the
Revolutionary War, a British ship visited
Fort Pond Bay in 1775 in search of provisions—notably cattle. John Dayton, who had limited troops at his disposal on a hill above the bay, feigned that he had more by walking them back and forth across a hill turning their coats inside out to make it look like there were more of them (a tactic referred to as "Dayton's Ruse"). In 1781, the British ran aground near what today is called
Culloden Point while pursuing a French
frigate. The ship was
scuttled, but its remains were discovered in the 1970s. It is now on the
National Register of Historic Places. In 1792, Congress authorized construction of the
Montauk Lighthouse. It was completed in 1796.
19th century In 1839, slaves who had seized the schooner
La Amistad came ashore in the hamlet looking for provisions after being told by the white crew they had returned to
Africa. American authorities were alerted, and the slaves were recaptured and ultimately freed in a historically significant trial. A judgment was entered in 1851 against the Trustees of the Freeholders and Commonalty of the Town of Easthampton, and on March 9, 1852, a deed to Montauk was given to plaintiffs
Henry P. Hedges and others, because their predecessors had contributed the money to purchase Montauk from the native Montaukett Indians in the 1600s. This deed caused the lands covered by the Dongan Patent to be split. Less than one month later, on April 2, 1852, a state law was passed that incorporated the proprietors of Montauk, establishing the corporation of the trustees of Montauk and affirming its right to govern.
Stephen Talkhouse was displayed in 1867 by
P. T. Barnum as "the last king of the Montauks." Talkhouse became famous for his walks around the South Fork. In 1879,
Arthur W. Benson paid $151,000 for for the east end. The deed releasing claim to Montauk was entered on March 9, 1852. Benson also received clear title to the Montaukett property at
Big Reed Pond, buying it from tribesmen for $10 each, and in one case one of the tribesmen's houses was burned down. The legitimacy of the transaction is still being contested in court by the tribe. Construction began in 1882 on seven
Shingle-style "cottages" designed by
Stanford White, which were the centerpiece of Benson's plans. The most prominent of the six Montauk Association houses is
Tick Hall, which was owned by entertainer
Dick Cavett from 1967 to October 2021, when he sold it for $23.6 million. The first train from the
Austin Corbin extension of the Long Island Rail Road pulled into Montauk in 1895, and the
Cannonball, its premier train to and from New York, made its first run four years later. Corbin planned to turn Montauk into a "shortcut", saving a day each way for voyages between New York City and
London: ships would dock at the Fort Pond Bay terminal and passengers would travel by rail to New York City in two hours. Corbin built the dock on Fort Pond Bay, but the plans never materialized when, among other things, Fort Pond Bay was found to be too shallow and rocky to handle oceangoing ships. In 1898, after the Benson/Corbin plan did not work out as planned, the
United States Army bought the Benson property to establish a base called
Camp Wikoff to
quarantine Army personnel returning from the
Spanish–American War. The most prominent of the returning quarantined soldiers were
Theodore Roosevelt and his
Rough Riders. Several soldiers died during the quarantine, prompting questions about the camp's conditions and a visit from President
William McKinley. as part of his project to turn Montauk into the
Miami Beach of the north
20th century Early 20th century In 1924,
Robert Moses began condemning the Benson land to establish state parks on either end of Montauk—
Hither Hills State Park in the west and
Montauk Point State Park in the east. The two parks were to be connected via the
Montauk Point State Parkway. In 1926,
Carl G. Fisher bought most of the
East End of Long Island () for $2.5 million. He planned to turn Montauk into the "
Miami Beach of the North", a "Tudor village by the sea". His projects included blasting a hole through the freshwater
Lake Montauk to access
Block Island Sound to replace the shallow Fort Pond Bay as the hamlet's port; establishing the Montauk Yacht Club and the Montauk Downs Golf Course; and building
Montauk Manor, a luxury resort hotel; the
Montauk Tennis Auditorium, which became a movie theater (and is now the Montauk Playhouse); and the six-story Carl Fisher Office Building (later the Montauk Improvement Building and now The Tower at Montauk, a residential condominium). This last building remains East Hampton's tallest occupied building, as zoning ordinances restricted heights of later buildings. The 30 or so buildings Fisher put up between 1926 and 1932 were designed in the
Tudor Revival style. In 1957, the Army closed Camp Hero, and it was taken over by the
United States Air Force, which in 1958 built a
AN/FPS-35 radar. A massive building was erected to house its computers.
Late 20th century In 1959, following the
Kitchen Debate between United States Vice President
Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier
Nikita Khrushchev, the designers of the kitchen, including
Raymond Loewy, announced plans to sell affordable
prefabricated houses, called
Leisurama, to be used for second homes. One of the houses was exhibited on the 9th floor of
Macy's. Two hundred of the houses, the largest installation, were assembled at
Culloden Point in Montauk. In 1967, the
United States Coast Guard announced plans to tear down the Montauk Lighthouse and replace it with a taller steel tower. Erosion had reduced its buffer from the edge of a cliff from when it was built to less than . After protests, the Coast Guard backed down from the plan. In 1982, the Air Force base formally closed, and the military began selling its surplus property. Montauk Friends of Olmsted Parks LLC was established in 1994 to protect an extensive system of beaches and waterfront properties and roadways. In 1995, Montauk became the birthplace of the extreme surfcasting technique known as
skishing. The sport involves donning a wetsuit and flippers and swimming into the ocean with rod and reel to catch fish while drifting offshore.
21st century of Montauk In October 2007, a fishing boat dragged up a large 19th-century
anchor, which was speculated to have been lost by the
SS Great Eastern in 1862. In 2008, an unidentifiable carcass known as the "
Montauk Monster" was discovered near the hamlet's business district, with much speculation as to its identity. In August 2016 OCEARCH designated the waters off of Montauk and the rest of the
South Shore of Long Island as a birthing ground for
great white sharks. ==Geography==