A Bit of History

If you sit at Gosman's Dock and look across Lake Montauk Inlet to the beach on Block Island Sound, you're looking at Gin Beach.  it stretches along the north shore of Montauk from Shagwong Point to the west.

One might think the name stems from the days of Prohibition...after all Rum Row as it was called lay just 12 miles off Montauk Point.  In fact Gin Beach recalls the days about 250 years' worth when East Hampton cattle and sheep were driven to Montauk to pasture each spring and driven off in the fall. 

A gin was a gate or corral, a fenced enclosure to trap the animals at round up time.  The stock were driven into the gin whenever their keepers wanted to inspect them, drive them from field to field, back into town or simply move them around.

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Men on horseback drove their cattle into the gin where they were "pocketed" by gin-keepers who put bars or lengths of movable fence to keep them in order.  At Gin Beach keepers had the responsibility of making sure cattle did not stray from North Neck across the field into Indian Field.  

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Each June 20th a great roundup took place at Third House where the cattle and calfs would be turned into Indian Field, the best grazing land in Montauk. Today it is the Indian Field County Park. 

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The name Gin Beach dates back to 1665. The beach itself is a narrow strip of sand that is cut in two today by the inlet and the lake it is also known as Great Pond. 

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Michelle Napoli  April 30, 1998 

East Hampton Star

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