Dead Horse Bay
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Dead Horse Bay is a portion of Jamaica Bay of Barren Island in the New York City borough of New York City.
During the seventeenth century, Dutch settlers built tide mills to grind wheat into flour. A remaining millstone can still be found along the Millstone trail. From the nineteenth century to the twentieth century the area has been used in a variety of ways, including manufacturing fertilizer from the remains of dead animals, producing fish oil from the menhaden caught in the bay, and most recently a landfill for the disposal of New York City’s garbage. In 1926, the salt marshes surrounding Dead Horse Bay and the rest of Barren Island were filled and connected to the land mass of Brooklyn in order to create Floyd Bennett Field as New York City's first municipal airport. The entire area, including the historic airfield, are now managed by the National Park Service as part of the Jamiaca Bay Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area.
Today, school groups are taken to Dead Horse Bay on a regular basis to walk the Millstone trail, seine for a variety of fishes, and learn about the natural and cultural history of the area.
