Summer Fun on Long Island: Caumsett State Historical Park

Caumsett State Historic Park, located on Huntington's Lloyd Neck peninsula, is not your typical Long Island park. You won't find any snack bars, swings, baseball diamonds, or campsites on the 1,500-acre grounds. Swimming, skating, and skateboarding are strictly forbidden, and the beautiful shore of Long Island Sound is a daunting two-mile walk from the public parking area.

What you will find at Caumsett are magnificent open spaces and breathtaking natural beauty. The park features some 27-miles of hiking, biking, and equestrian trails with ample opportunites for bird-watching and nature photography. Visitors who are more attracted to water than land can fish in the Sound from sunrise to sunset (limited permits are available) or enjoy Caumsett's scuba diving area and boating facilities.

Before the land was acquired by the state of New York in 1961, Caumsett was part of a private estate owned and developed by the department store heir Marshall Field III. Field's summer estate encompassed 1,750-acres of magnificent meadows, woodlands, and beach property on the north shore of Long Island. More than a hundred employees worked full-time to maintain Field's sprawling orchards, vegetable gardens, dairy farm, stables, kennels, sport facilities, and yacht dock. And what good would a rich man's summer estate be without a well-maintained polo field?

Today, visitors can tour the 1711 Henry Lloyd Manor, which served as the main gatehouse back when Field roamed the grounds in the 1920s. Field's private mansion now serves as the headquarters of the Queens College Center for Environmental Teaching and Research. At the east end of the building's backyard, visitors can observe the injured owls, eagles, and red-tailed hawks that now are sheltered in the Queens College Center's aviaries.

The name Caumsett comes from the Matinecock Indian name meaning "place by a sharp rock." Although the massive boulder that earned the area its name was deemed a hazard to navigation and blasted away some sixty years ago, visitors who hike to the end of Target Rock Road can still see the impressive boulder for which Target Rock National Wildlife Refuge is named. This 80-acre park features an extensive rocky shoreline and forested trails. The refuge is home to a wide variety of songbirds, mammals, fish, reptiles, and amphibians.

To reach Caumsett State Historic Park, take the Long Island Expressway to Exit 49N. Follow Route 110 north about 10 miles to Main Street (Route 25A) in Huntington. Make a left onto Main Street and follow it for a short distance. Turn onto West Neck Road and continue about three miles until it becomes Lloyd Harbor Road. Caumsett Park is a short distance on the left.

The park is open daily from sunrise to sunset and is partially wheelchair accessible. Parking fees apply in season. For more information, call 631-423-1770.