Sandy Hook offers millions of citizens a variety of historical and recreational activities in a fast-growing metropolitan area that needs greater access to such facilities, particularly water sports
Sandy Hook is a 1665 acres barrier beach peninsula located at the northern tip of the New Jersey Shore. It is the result of sediment moved by the longshore current piling up. The Hook features seven miles of ocean beaches, the waters of the Sandy Hook Bay, salt marsh, dunes, a maritime forest, and habitat for migratory shorebirds.
Source National Park Service
The Sandy Hook Bird Observatory was established in 2001 by the New Jersey Audubon Society in one of New Jersey's best year-around birding locations. A major migration path in both spring and fall, Sandy Hook has attracted over 340 bird species to its varying habitats, and over 50 species of butterflies have also been recorded.
Sandy Hook is a peninsula that projects northward into Raritan Bay at the northern-most point of the New Jersey coast. Due to its history as a military installation until recently, Sandy Hook is an almost undeveloped barrier island with a variety of habitats: beach and dunes, mudflats, holly forest, deciduous woods, freshwater ponds, salt marshes, coastal scrub/shrub, and successional fields.
In March and April, bird watching focuses on waterfowl, gulls, and raptors; May brings abundant migrating songbirds. Fall birding begins in August with south-bound shorebirds, followed in September and October by numerous songbirds, such as flycatchers, warblers, sparrows, and buntings. Various water birds can be found in winter, including loons, grebes, sea ducks, and gulls. Occasional winter visitors include Snowy Owl, Lapland Longspur, and winter finches.
Rarities in recent years include Sabine's Gull, Swallow-tailed Kite, Gyrfalcon, Purple Gallinule, Barrow's Goldeneye, Groove-billed Ani, Gray Kingbird, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Townsend's Warbler, and LeConte's Sparrow.
The citizens' group, Save Sandy Hook, believes the history of Sandy Hook and Fort Hancock are too rich and important to allow commercial activities not related to the park.
How You Can Help:
Contact your political leaders and express your concerns.
Sign our online petition.
Get involved! Contact us at info@savesandyhook.org
Make a contribution to the cause.
• Fort Hancock in the 1950s was an integral part of the East Coast Nike missile defense system;
• Sandy Hook was held by Loyalists during the American Revolution, supporting the British occupation of New York Harbor;
• Sandy Hook offers millions of citizens a variety of historical and recreational activities in a fast-growing metropolitan area that needs greater access to such facilities, particularly water sports;
• The barrier island was home to Unami Indians for thousands of years, and offers an important historical and cultural link to the now-lost original inhabitants of New Jersey;
• Sandy Hook was the site of the first lighthouse on the East Coast, erected in 1764 by New York merchants to protect their shipping;
• Following World War II, the southern portion of Sandy Hook became a state park; In 1972, the state park and Fort Hancock became part of the Gateway National Recreation Area;
• Sandy Hook was one of the first landfalls sighted by Henry Hudson as he explored the Atlantic coastline;
• Sandy Hook was fortified during the War of 1812 and Fort Hancock and its gun batteries were established in 1895 to protect Raritan Bay and New York Harbo;
• Sandy Hook Light was ceded to the Federal Government in 1789. In 1823 a light ship, the Sandy Hook, was put into operation, to facilitate shipping. A light ship is still in use today, and the lighthouse is no longer listed by the Coast Guard as a seacoast lighthouse. Nontheless, Sandy Hook Light and its fellow lights at Navesink still shine, warning mariners of the dangerous shoals of the New Jersey coast.;
• In 1761, the merchants of New York City financed a lottery to raise sufficient funds to erect a lighthouse on Sandy Hook, to guide ships past the New Jersey Shoal into New York harbour.;
• Sandy Hook in 1874 was the first ordnance testing facility of the U.S. Army, including the famous Rodman Gun and the disappearing predecessor to Aberdeen and White Sands; Sandy Hook has the highest concentration of American Holly on the East Coast in a 264-acre maritime forest that includes stands of trees that are 170 years old;
• The tall, white lighthouse at Sandy Hook, New Jersey was the fifth lighthouse to be built in America, when erected in 1764, and today is the oldest standing light tower in the United States. originally called the "New York Lighthouse, " its unfailing beam has befriended innumerable vessels as they have passed in or out of New York.;
• Sandy Hook has a restored station built by the U.S Life-Saving Service, the forerunner in the late 19th Century to the modern U.S. Coast Guard, which is still stationed at Sandy Hook;
• Sandy Hook peninsula is the only undeveloped barrier beach area on the northern end of the New Jersey Shore, north of Island Beach State Park. ;
• Sandy Hook was the departure point for British soldiers defeated in the famous Battle of Monmouth, which also gave rise to the legend of Molly Pitcher;
• Sandy Hook is host to more than 300 species birds and is an important way station on the Atlantic Flyway for migratory birds and butterflies;
• There are currently five beach-nesting bird colonies on the ocean beach at Sandy Hook, with an average of 20 pairs of Piping Plover from 1985 to 1995. In 1995, over 600 Least Terns nested along with the piping plover at Sandy Hook, the largest number of Least Terns in New Jersey that year. The backdune areas on Sandy Hook sustain Spotted Turtles, Box Turtles, Eastern Mud Turtles, and several regionally rare plant species such as Virginia pine.;