Mike Cirba,
Whether through chronic carelessness or intentional deception on your part, almost all your posts contain misrepresentations of the source material.
1. CBM was NOT QUOTED in the November 1, 1901 article at all. And a report from the same instance, written the same day in a different paper, provided a different version of the same event. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle - the paper you insist had the best information on the course - reported that CBM "said that he had inspected land for the ideal links project in various sections around Peconic Bay and Shinnecock Hills" and that this "admission" had been printed "as far back as last spring."
Did you get that? VARIOUS SECTIONS AROUND PECONIC BAY AND SHINNECOCK HILLS. I suppose that this must be read as excluding the Sebonack Neck portion as well?
2. You also disingenuously state that "we KNOW where Shinnecock Hills was," as if this was at issue. The issue is the location of the inlet as compared to the "Shinnecock Station" not all of the Shinnecock Hills.
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Jim,
I never said a thing about viewing the inlet from the North Highway. You are the one who suggested that it had to be looked at in relation to the RR tracks and so I suggested that it seems like it would be readily visible from the train. I had thought the inlet was three or four hundred yards from the railroad tracks, but I just measured it and it seems to be about 500 ft. at its closest point (where the west section of Inlet Road first intersects with the North Highway.) Your measure was to the mouth, but it sure seems like both the mouth and narrow passage would have been visible from the tracks. The RR appears to be between approx. 50 and 80 feet elevation as it approaches and passes the inlet, and the grounds appears to slope down to the inlet. Without trees (and at the time there were few) it would be easily visible. To put it in perspective, the Alps hill and the Redan tee are both around 40 ft. elevation and Bullshead Bay is about 400-425 yards away.
I don't know exactly what was considered Good Ground and I don't accept Mike's designation of anything as "gospel," which is why I clearly noted that this was Mike's description and not mine. But surely at least Mike ought to have to live with his own claims! I don't know exactly where Good Ground started or ended, although I have read references to the "Shinnecock Canal" as being in or at Good Ground.
You wrote: "Any objective reading of that passage while looking at a basic map will conclude that the referenced landmark was the canal."
Talk about a Cirbaian over-statement! I challenge you or anyone to find me one historical reference where the Shinnecock Canal was ever referred to as an Inlet! I've looked at a lot of references and have never seen it! And why would they reference the Canal with a RR station that was two miles away? Why not just say "the canal" or "the Shinnecock Canal" as that was how it was known?
You asked: "Do you think the canal may have been an inlet 15 year earlier before the banks were dug out a little bit?
No. This was a canal. A man made canal. There is a legend that the indians had a canal there long before, but if true it was long gone. Reportedly, the RR passed through on a 10 foot embankment. Canal Construction began in the 1880's and by 1901 they had reportedly spent $225,000 on the Canal and its various gates, a swinging bridge for the highway and a RR bridge for the RR (neither of which were apparently needed before the Canal.) This doesn't include the cost of a second RR bridge to replace the damaged original. While the banks were reportedly sandy, by 1901 there was reported a substantial structure below water level. One of the purposes served was to bring Shinnecock Bay, which had been cut off from the ocean, back into productive health. (The Shinnecock Inlet was created by the 1938 Hurricane.)See History of the Canal System of the State of New York (1906) by Witford and Beal, on Google Books.
You asked: Did this canal have locks? I've driven over it and believe it may have a lock right now, but not sure when it arrived.
Not sure, but according to Wikipedia the current lock system was built in 1919. As of 1906 there were gates to control the tides but I am not sure about locks.
Jim, the bottom line for me is that the Shinnecock Canal was well known and called the Shinnecock Canal. It wasn't called an "inlet" and it would have made no sense to call it one or to describe its location by reference to a RR station two miles away! In contrast, the actual inlet was called an inlet, and no with any reasonable placement of Good Ground, the inlet falls between Good Ground and the Shinnecock Hills Station.
If they meant "in the Shinnecock Hills north of the RR" the why didn't they say "in the Shinnecock Hills north of the RR."
And Jim, my understanding is no more specific or less specific than your understanding. We just use different inlets. Or rather, I use an actual inlet and you use a canal.