Pleasure Beach

I have the next 21 hours to move out of my apartment, so this will be a brief survey of information sans photos:

The Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge has 6 units, include Falkner Island (in which I have previously taken interest) and the Great Meadows Unit, to which our expedition expeditiously took us. There used to be bigger and better plans for it, but those clearly were given up since their expected date of completion passed in 2003: "A self guided [2,000-foot-long (wheelchair-accessible)] trail at Great Meadows Unit is expected to be completed by the fall of 2003. This trail will be fully accessible and even include voice recordings to increase the trails enjoyment by the visually disabled. [From this new trail, visitors may see northern harriers, red breasted mergansers, black ducks, pied billed grebe, great blue herons, and numerous other bird species.]"

We saw all sorts of wildlife, including the inhabitants, but we didn't notice these birds.

Finally, Will's imagination about the dudes with guns wasn't far off the mark at all. Sub-headline from January 7, 2005 article in the New Haven Register: STRATFORD — Hunting enthusiasts told refuge specialists for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Thursday in Town Hall that they strongly support a plan to open up waterfowl hunting at the 500-acre Great Meadows Marsh that is part of the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge. [full text]

Interested in becoming a Salt Marsh Research Technician at this site? Their standards aren't too high: "Experience in salt marsh bird observation is welcomed but not necessary." But you should have applied by April 1, 2005.

It's quite apparent from the Google satellite map that we walked a very long way along the Long Beach isthmus. Republic "Doc" Gunther is a major advocate of building a Pleasure Beach Causeway to revive the days when Pleasure Beach was "the very best beach to go, probably in New England." (hmm...) The wording of the article suggests that we were not trespassing, but simply in an area of "severely limited pedestrian access."

Here is a diagram of the WICC transmitter area (perhaps the strange structure we saw was the Pleasure Beach Ballroom, also mysteriously destroyed by arson??? What's up with Pleasure Beach and final destructive fires?) The remains of the cottages could be interesting to find. Note that the photo is of the bridge leading to Pleasure Beach before it burned in 1996.

Adjunct trip when ACCESS returns to Pleasure Beach: Sikorsky Aircraft's abandoned factory and landing field nearby in Bridgeport on South Avenue, which is mentioned in the above article.

On Election Day, voters will vote on whether to allocate $13.5 million to the development of this causeway, according to a CT Post article. So apparently there is a huge controversy raging right now about the fate of the beach, and we came just in time to see it. The Soundkeeper is seeking to block construction of the causeway for environment concerns, and they et al will probably succeed, according to an August 11 article in the Stratford Star, "Welcome to the Long Beach cottages of Pleasure Beach."

Most importantly, the mystery of the inhabitants: they use these houses as summer homes and are fighting the city to keep them from being redeveloped into expensive waterfront properties. There are 45 families, some of which have known each other since the 40s. You would think from this article that they were a bit more friendly.

Finally, if anyone wants to acquire a copy of Andrew Pehanick's Bridgeport, there is an entire chapter devoted to the Pleasure Beach Amusement Park (probably with old postcard photos). You can always just ask SML to buy it--they've always bought my requests, but they can be slow.

Useless data.