Bryan,
Based on your knowledge of the North road in 1906, is there anything that would discount this possibly being the approximate site mentioned in the article? I've said before, and I'll say again - no, I don't think your drawing fits this description nor is it the site of the 120 acre offer or the final site. By the way, what you've marked out is about 180 acres. Not near any of 120 or 205 or 250 or 450 acres
Shinnecock Hills GC adjoining on the East It doesn't adjoin it. Sort of kitty corner.
Skirting the Long Island Rail Road to the South Nope, it doesn't meet my understanding of "skirting".
Western Boundary near the inlet between Shinnecock Station and Good Ground Depends upon which inlet they are talking about and what acreage your trying to match it too. If it's 120 acres, where are you going to take 60 acres off?
Stretching along Peconic Bay to the North Nope, it stretches along Cold Spring Pond.
Using Shinnecocck Inn as the clubhouse Is that from this article? Or, another one. Or, CBM's writings?
Bryan,
It has been offered here that the October 15th 1906 article (see my snippet above) is talking about the land on Sebonac Neck that CBM eventually purchased.
While I can see some of your points here in reference to my approximate drawing , I also think you're nitpicking a bit.
By contrast, do you think that the land of the existing NGLA golf course in any way had the 1906 Shinnecock GC adjoining to the east, skirted the Long Island Rail Tracks to the south, or has its most westerly point the inlet between Good Ground and Shinnecock Station?Which of the two properties more accurately fall into the parameters described in the article? Either?
As regards your other questions, I'll try to answer more comprehensively as I'm able, but for now let me state the following;
1) I believe an accurate reading of CBM's book indicates that he made his first offer for the "Canal Site" not in late 1905, but in 1906 after his return from abroad. I believe CBM decided that he would build his course somewhere in Shinnecock Hills in late 1905, after Alvord's company purchased the whole shebang late that year. Within a month or so, CBM was on a boat to GBI for five months, not just to study the great courses and ideal holes,
but more precisely, to have exact surveyor's topographical maps drawn of them. I don't believe CBM would have made an offer for a specific parcel of land PRIOR to having the exact specs for what he wanted to build on that land.2) I have no idea what a view of the ocean has to do with any first site for the golf course. I think that's simply misleading refuse from Patrick's speculation that you couldn't see the Atlantic from anywhere on the Sebonac Neck site (in 1906, which includes the higher land of today's Sebonack GC) before a lot of tree growth over the past century. Certainly, I've never seen anything indicating that the "Canal Site" had ocean views, but I have seen a number of articles stating that views of the seas existed from almost every vantage point in Shinnecock Hills. Was that marketing or reality? I don't know, but Patrick who pretends to know doesn't know either.
3) I think the site described in the article is very possibly the "canal site". Although it's western edge is half-mile from the canal, that's a damn site closer than the 1.5 miles that the western edge of NGLA is from the Inlet described as the western edge in the article. Besides, what other landmark could they state it was close to? Travelling east, the canal would be the last thing you'd go past other than open meadows before reaching the course.
4) In 1905, newspapers reported the CBM was mostly looking to build near Westbury, not far from Meadowbrook CC at that time.
5) Only one NYC newspaper, the Evening Telegram, reported that site in October of 1906. In fact, that article, which was published on Monday, October 15th, was followed by a verbatim article the next day in the Rochester (NY) Democrat, and very similar articles the next day in Boston that David later posted here. David had speculated that perhaps the Boston papers had the scoop because CBM was there at a tournament at Myopia, but it appears the story had it's genesis in NYC with the Telegram.
Within weeks, other papers, including the Brooklyn Daily Eagle which seems to have been by far the most accurate and detailed throughout the entire year and a half saga, wrote that CBM had indeed not made up his mind yet, but was considering a number of sites in "various sections" of Shinnecock Hills. The NY Sun indicated more specifically on November 1st that he as still looking at a site in western Shinnecock Hills near Good Ground, as well as in Montauk.
Conversely, when CBM actually did ink the papers to secure 205 undetermined acres out of the 450 available to him on Sebonac Neck on December 14th, 1906, within days ALL the major newspapers in NYC were carrying the story in detail.
6) As regards the "120 acres", I'd speculate that the following may have happened. We know CBM was primarily interested in golf, but we know his plans and original solicitation to membership included needing about 205 acres with the promise of building lots for Founders. We also know that CBM felt he'd need about 110 acres for his golf course, and another five for a clubhouse and surrounds, so I think it's reasonable to assume he felt he could do the golf course on 120 acres.
I think he may have gone to Alvord seeking 205 acres in and around where I've approximated, but Alvord said no...he had his own plans for real estate in that area and didn't want competition for estate land sales. Given that reality, I think perhaps CBM went back to him asking if he could at least have his 120 acres for golf in that neighborhood (which is the offer he recalled 25 years later in his book), but probably again was shot down.
It's important also to note that NO newspapers of the time, despite some detailed coverage over a number of years, EVER mentioned anything about CBM offering to buy land adjacent to the Canal, either in 1905 or any other year. I think possibly as consolation that Alvord may have suggested that CBM consider his at the time "unplanned" land up to the northeast on Sebonac Neck, but I believe this whole process happened quickly and sequentially, just like its described in the book. I think that CBM and Whigham spent a few days riding around and were excited by the prospects, and had some of their friends come by in coming days to confirm.
I think by November that Alvord agreed to sell CBM 205 acres of the 450 available at $20K, of which "securing" contract papers were signed a few weeks later on December 14th.
So, in closing, I think the October articles were generally mistaken, and derivative from that original October 15th Evening Herald article, and were likely some confused amalgam of land CBM had been considering and had made an offer for somewhere down to the west of Shinnecock Hills extending out to the inlet towards Good Ground, and the land that he had just been offered to consider stretching further to the northeast. As described, the area is well over 1000 acres, which makes no sense for a golf course, or for a land purchase. Certainly, that Evening Telegram article was not confirmed by any other independent NYC newspaper source.
I think CBM likely spent a lot of time looking at land between Shinnecock Bay and Peconic Bay after his return from abroad in June, and likely made his canal offer sometime by early September.
I think CBM then was asked to consider the Sebonac Neck land, and after he and Whigham rode it, they invited Travis, Chauncey, and friends over the next few weeks, and also negotiated pricing with Alvord which took them to sometime in November.
Once they all felt comfortable with the price and the general land forms for golf, feeling comfortable that they had enough land of contiguous quality to build what they wanted, lawyers drafted papers that gave CBM the right to select the 205 acres of the 450 he felt best for golf over the next several months and papers were signed.
After CBM and his committee determined the holes and finalized the routing, the property was surveyed by Raynor, the boundaries staked, and the purchase finalized in the spring of 1907.
I may be wrong...but that's what I think happened.