Plum Island's Wacky Whirls: From Coat to Zoo

Listen close, folks. Tucked away off Orient Point, New York, Plum Island's tale began with the local Corchaug and Montauket Indian tribes, who handed it over to Samuel Wyllys in exchange for a coat, a barrel of biscuits, and 100 fish hooks. Fast-forwarding to a later date, the government nabbed it from Abraham S. Hewitt, for 25,000 bucks. The history behind this buyout? As hush-hush as a secret recipe. Fast-forward yet again to 1897, with Fort Terry's arrival, named after Major General Alfred Terry, part of the Endicott Program and Long Island Sound's Harbor Defenses. This fine island's served troops during the Spanish-American War and World War II, boasting even a 36-inch gauge railway, a military animal and biological warfare research facility, a 1000-cell prison, and these days, a wildlife refuge.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons