Interesting how Amtrak's Arrive magazine has decided to do a piece on Montauk, even though it is not on any rail line, and more interesting how it mentions Camp Hero. As today is the anniversary of the Mountauk incident in 1943 and 1983 and the "Fuck the World" ceremony Aleister Crowley did in 1943 I am sharing their story here.
http://www.arrive-digital.com/arrive/summer_fall_2016?pg=NaN#pgNaN
What’s better than Montauk in the summer? Montauk in the fall, when the weather is still warm, the crowds thin out and the sleepy fishing village regains its easy, beachy charm
by MATT MCCUE photography by PRESTON SCHLEBUSCH
THE END A view of the Montauk Point Lighthouse from Camp Hero State Park.
An art installation in the garden at LongHouse
NO TRAFFIC LIGHT NEEDEDlocal surfers have the beach to themselves.
One glance up and down the seemingly endless, people-free stretch of beach along Old Montauk Highway, and I was sure this wasn’t Montauk. It couldn’t possibly be. Where were the masses of humanity?
From what I had read, the East End summer had recently morphed from fishing village charm to a powder keg of chaos and pandemonium, lit up by hard-partying urbanites on a vacation bender. I had imagined the beach along Old Montauk Highway to be the nautical version of the subway rush hour, throngs of people fighting for tiny patches of precious, sandy real estate. And when space ran out? Another beachcomber would do the equivalent of throwing himself into a packed train car and unfurl his towel anyway, personal space be damned!
So my plan was to head out to Montauk after Labor Day 2015 to see if I could experience the area in a simpler, slower way, without having to fight crowds at every turn.
Every Day Is "Tumbleweed Tuesday"Locals call the Tuesday after Labor Day "Tumbleweed Tuesday," since that’s when life in their sleepy town returns to normal. Ask around, and they’ll say fall is arguably the best time to visit Montauk, anyway. The weather remains pleasant, the crowds thin out and the prices fall. One can walk into a restaurant at 7 p.m. without a reservation, hike over quiet nature trails, and enjoy the farmers market bounty of pumpkins and apples during harvest season. And, if it becomes "sweatshirt weather," as my grandma always called a chilly day, a number of world-class art museums are an easy drive away.
"People don’t get it," Montauk native Maureen Keller says of what visitors imagine locals do during the fall. "They’re like, ‘You don’t have a mall?’ We don’t even have a traffic light."
OCEANFRONT PROPERTYBlack Cod, caramelized fennel and concentrated tomatoes at Scarpetta Beach
terraces with ocean views; and the indoor pool at Gurney’s Resort.
Keller is the concierge at Gurney’s Montauk Resort & Seawater Spa, the oceanfront hotel built right into the hillside below Old Montauk Highway. A $5 million renovation has turned the historic property into a pyramid of suites with terraces overlooking the water. The year-round resort has a saltwater pool, provides free shuttles into town, and houses the stellar Italian restaurant Scarpetta Beach with a large deck overlooking the surf.
If one’s sole motivation for visiting Montauk is to collapse onto a beach chair and not move for 48 hours, save for mai tais, massages and shuteye, Gurney’s is an ideal temporary home.
On my first morning in town, Keller took me on a drive around Montauk.
"Over 60 percent of the land in Montauk is protected," she notes. We toured the Montauk Point Lighthouse, perched atop the steep dunes on Long Island’s eastern tip; Camp Hero State Park, a one-time army base that was disguised as a fishing outpost; and Rocky Point, an under-the-radar walk that winds around Napeague Bay’s coast. In nearby Hither Hills State Park, there are 168 oceanfront campsites that cost $35 a night for New York residents, one of the best deals in the state.
September Is the Coolest MonthAs we skirted Lake Montauk, Keller talked about what it was like to grow up here. "We didn’t have a key to our house," she says. "We never locked the door." Once, her sister worked as a server for a party at Andy Warhol’s former estate, Eothen, that feted the Rolling Stones. Keller’s sister, then in high school, didn’t have a car, so she caught a ride home from Mick Jagger. The Rolling Stones would become Montauk regulars and eventually write the song "Memory Motel," named for a still-standing area motel.
While visitors are unlikely to bump into Jagger and company in Montauk today, the town has much more to offer than celebrity sightings. For example, there are the lobster sandwiches.
For lunch, Keller dropped me off at the Montauk Yacht Club on Star Island. The sprawling 32-acre property fronts Lake Montauk and is home to docks that house up to 250 boats. Today, though, I essentially had the restaurant patio to myself and could enjoy my lobster roll, stuffed with so much meat that it required two hands, as I looked out at the glassy lake feeling like this was my own private estate. I dined with bar director Wayne Connolly, who moved to Montauk five years ago and, when asked his favorite month, quickly picked September.
"The fishing is better," he says. "You see stripers flapping out on the water, and you are quickly reeling them in."
Fishermen aren’t the only outdoors enthusiasts who can delight in the fall season. It’s also prime time for surfers, who can ride out the remnants of the hurricane season storms, and birdwatchers, who can look off the point and view the winter migration of birds taking the skyway from Canada to the Caribbean.
If You GoTHE DOCK BAR
1 Montauk Harbor
Thedockmontauk.com
GURNEY’S MONTAUK RESORT & SEAWATER SPA
290 Old Montauk Hwy.
Gurneysmountauk.com
HITHER HILLS STATE PARK
164 Old Montauk Hwy.
Nysparks.com/parks/122
LONGHOUSE RESERVE
133 Hands Creek Road East Hampton
Longhouse.org
MONTAUK LIGHTHOUSE
2000 Montauk Hwy.
montauklighthouse.com
MONTAUK YACHT CLUB
32 Star Island Road
Montaukyachtclub.com
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVESLocal windsurfers
boats at the Montauk Yacht Club
a sculpture in the garden at Long-House
a lobster roll at the Montauk Yacht Club.
Sunrise over the Atlantic.
Even though the baked sand feels just as good in September as in the peak summer months, and the air and ocean temperatures fall by only a few degrees, not everyone is a beach person. For those who aren’t, there are side trips. One afternoon, I took a short drive to the LongHouse Reserve, an outdoor sculpture garden set on the grounds of textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen’s East Hampton home, tucked back on a winding, woodsy road. The LongHouse Reserve is an ideal stop for those parties that contain both art experts and novices, because the tour weaves through 16 acres of manicured gardens and hedges dotted with metal artistry. Tour highlights include Dale Chihuly’s cobalt glass reeds rising out of a pond, a white concrete chess set with human-sized pieces created by Yoko Ono, and the piece "Eye of the Ring" by Takashi Soga that appears as if the ring atop a beam is floating in the air. As we walked, curator Wendy Van Deusen pointed out how the sun’s light and grassy backdrops are constantly changing throughout the day and the seasons, casting different perspectives on the sculptures.
"In another hour, the pieces will look different," she says.
At the exit is a 7-foot-tall "Gateway Bell" by Toshiko Takaezu with a wooden mallet resting at its base. "Give it a hit," encouraged Van Deusen. Bang! The move went against everything I had been taught about not touching the art, but it turned out to be a wonderful exercise in stress relief. In fact, I did it again.
Keeping the Un-Hamptons RealThe Hamptons and "dive bar" are two terms rarely associated with each other, but Montauk has a stable of colorful, low-key joints not named Sloppy Tuna. Most notable is The Dock, where you’re just as apt to be told what you can’t have as what you can. The list of prohibited items includes credit cards, cellphones, strollers, screaming kids, requests, dirt bags, whining, wimps and chickenhawks.
"That list has grown over the years, the things that annoy me," admits proprietor George Watson. What happens if someone breaks a rule? "I have a bullhorn," says Watson, who speaks with a certain sense of pride when noting that he had just caught a cellphone offender. "I stood at her table and kept screaming," he says. "And the rest of the patrons cheered me on."
"People don’t get it," Montauk native Maureen Keller says of what visitors imagine locals do during the fall. "They’re like, ‘You don’t have a mall?’ We don’t even have a traffic light."
BREATHING THE SALTY AIR An ocean view at Camp Hero State Park; enjoying a bonfire on the beach.
Watson started visiting Montauk to go camping in Hither Hills in the 1950s, and his father built a house here in ’57. Watson left the New York City fire department when the opportunity arose to buy the bar in Montauk Harbor. As Watson tells it, he met with the previous owner at 8 a.m., and their meeting involved blackberry brandy and ended with a handshake deal.
"I had the bar by that night," he says. The cinder block building décor can best be described as "stuffed animal head chic," and the four rotating draft beers are always fresh and ice cold. For all the things that irk him, though, Watson is rather welcoming of a new breed of Montauk bar patron. "A lot of people complain about the hipsters," says Watson. "As far as I am concerned, the hipsters are a lot better than the shark fishermen."
The hard-partying hipsters have, in recent years, been at the root of tension between the local community, second-home owners and the summer visitors. Montauk has always considered itself the "un-Hamptons," but now the nightlife and parties have turned its summer into a threemonth bacchanal.
And yet, it’s an inevitable growing pain for a village that dates to the 1700s and is close to numerous metropolises. A seaside community will always attract people who want to breathe in the salty air and blow off workweek steam in the summer.
"In the 1970s, we partied as hard as the kids do now, except we were high school kids then, and now they’re stockbrokers," says longtime Montauk Life publisher Kirby Marcantonio, who has lived in the area since the 1960s.
However, partiers get older too. Along the way to realizing they’ve outgrown skinny jeans, Marcantonio says, they might begin to think, "Maybe I want Montauk to be calmer and cooler than when I first saw it." Then they slow down and begin to appreciate the surroundings for their historical significance.
Until that happens, head to Montauk in the fall. The only thing you’ll miss from peak season are the crowds.
http://www.arrive-digital.com/arrive/summer_fall_2016?pg=NaN#pgNaN
What’s better than Montauk in the summer? Montauk in the fall, when the weather is still warm, the crowds thin out and the sleepy fishing village regains its easy, beachy charm
by MATT MCCUE photography by PRESTON SCHLEBUSCH
THE END A view of the Montauk Point Lighthouse from Camp Hero State Park.
An art installation in the garden at LongHouse
NO TRAFFIC LIGHT NEEDEDlocal surfers have the beach to themselves.
One glance up and down the seemingly endless, people-free stretch of beach along Old Montauk Highway, and I was sure this wasn’t Montauk. It couldn’t possibly be. Where were the masses of humanity?
From what I had read, the East End summer had recently morphed from fishing village charm to a powder keg of chaos and pandemonium, lit up by hard-partying urbanites on a vacation bender. I had imagined the beach along Old Montauk Highway to be the nautical version of the subway rush hour, throngs of people fighting for tiny patches of precious, sandy real estate. And when space ran out? Another beachcomber would do the equivalent of throwing himself into a packed train car and unfurl his towel anyway, personal space be damned!
So my plan was to head out to Montauk after Labor Day 2015 to see if I could experience the area in a simpler, slower way, without having to fight crowds at every turn.
Every Day Is "Tumbleweed Tuesday"Locals call the Tuesday after Labor Day "Tumbleweed Tuesday," since that’s when life in their sleepy town returns to normal. Ask around, and they’ll say fall is arguably the best time to visit Montauk, anyway. The weather remains pleasant, the crowds thin out and the prices fall. One can walk into a restaurant at 7 p.m. without a reservation, hike over quiet nature trails, and enjoy the farmers market bounty of pumpkins and apples during harvest season. And, if it becomes "sweatshirt weather," as my grandma always called a chilly day, a number of world-class art museums are an easy drive away.
"People don’t get it," Montauk native Maureen Keller says of what visitors imagine locals do during the fall. "They’re like, ‘You don’t have a mall?’ We don’t even have a traffic light."
OCEANFRONT PROPERTYBlack Cod, caramelized fennel and concentrated tomatoes at Scarpetta Beach
terraces with ocean views; and the indoor pool at Gurney’s Resort.
Keller is the concierge at Gurney’s Montauk Resort & Seawater Spa, the oceanfront hotel built right into the hillside below Old Montauk Highway. A $5 million renovation has turned the historic property into a pyramid of suites with terraces overlooking the water. The year-round resort has a saltwater pool, provides free shuttles into town, and houses the stellar Italian restaurant Scarpetta Beach with a large deck overlooking the surf.
If one’s sole motivation for visiting Montauk is to collapse onto a beach chair and not move for 48 hours, save for mai tais, massages and shuteye, Gurney’s is an ideal temporary home.
On my first morning in town, Keller took me on a drive around Montauk.
"Over 60 percent of the land in Montauk is protected," she notes. We toured the Montauk Point Lighthouse, perched atop the steep dunes on Long Island’s eastern tip; Camp Hero State Park, a one-time army base that was disguised as a fishing outpost; and Rocky Point, an under-the-radar walk that winds around Napeague Bay’s coast. In nearby Hither Hills State Park, there are 168 oceanfront campsites that cost $35 a night for New York residents, one of the best deals in the state.
September Is the Coolest MonthAs we skirted Lake Montauk, Keller talked about what it was like to grow up here. "We didn’t have a key to our house," she says. "We never locked the door." Once, her sister worked as a server for a party at Andy Warhol’s former estate, Eothen, that feted the Rolling Stones. Keller’s sister, then in high school, didn’t have a car, so she caught a ride home from Mick Jagger. The Rolling Stones would become Montauk regulars and eventually write the song "Memory Motel," named for a still-standing area motel.
While visitors are unlikely to bump into Jagger and company in Montauk today, the town has much more to offer than celebrity sightings. For example, there are the lobster sandwiches.
For lunch, Keller dropped me off at the Montauk Yacht Club on Star Island. The sprawling 32-acre property fronts Lake Montauk and is home to docks that house up to 250 boats. Today, though, I essentially had the restaurant patio to myself and could enjoy my lobster roll, stuffed with so much meat that it required two hands, as I looked out at the glassy lake feeling like this was my own private estate. I dined with bar director Wayne Connolly, who moved to Montauk five years ago and, when asked his favorite month, quickly picked September.
"The fishing is better," he says. "You see stripers flapping out on the water, and you are quickly reeling them in."
Fishermen aren’t the only outdoors enthusiasts who can delight in the fall season. It’s also prime time for surfers, who can ride out the remnants of the hurricane season storms, and birdwatchers, who can look off the point and view the winter migration of birds taking the skyway from Canada to the Caribbean.
If You GoTHE DOCK BAR
1 Montauk Harbor
Thedockmontauk.com
GURNEY’S MONTAUK RESORT & SEAWATER SPA
290 Old Montauk Hwy.
Gurneysmountauk.com
HITHER HILLS STATE PARK
164 Old Montauk Hwy.
Nysparks.com/parks/122
LONGHOUSE RESERVE
133 Hands Creek Road East Hampton
Longhouse.org
MONTAUK LIGHTHOUSE
2000 Montauk Hwy.
montauklighthouse.com
MONTAUK YACHT CLUB
32 Star Island Road
Montaukyachtclub.com
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVESLocal windsurfers
boats at the Montauk Yacht Club
a sculpture in the garden at Long-House
a lobster roll at the Montauk Yacht Club.
Sunrise over the Atlantic.
Even though the baked sand feels just as good in September as in the peak summer months, and the air and ocean temperatures fall by only a few degrees, not everyone is a beach person. For those who aren’t, there are side trips. One afternoon, I took a short drive to the LongHouse Reserve, an outdoor sculpture garden set on the grounds of textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen’s East Hampton home, tucked back on a winding, woodsy road. The LongHouse Reserve is an ideal stop for those parties that contain both art experts and novices, because the tour weaves through 16 acres of manicured gardens and hedges dotted with metal artistry. Tour highlights include Dale Chihuly’s cobalt glass reeds rising out of a pond, a white concrete chess set with human-sized pieces created by Yoko Ono, and the piece "Eye of the Ring" by Takashi Soga that appears as if the ring atop a beam is floating in the air. As we walked, curator Wendy Van Deusen pointed out how the sun’s light and grassy backdrops are constantly changing throughout the day and the seasons, casting different perspectives on the sculptures.
"In another hour, the pieces will look different," she says.
At the exit is a 7-foot-tall "Gateway Bell" by Toshiko Takaezu with a wooden mallet resting at its base. "Give it a hit," encouraged Van Deusen. Bang! The move went against everything I had been taught about not touching the art, but it turned out to be a wonderful exercise in stress relief. In fact, I did it again.
Keeping the Un-Hamptons RealThe Hamptons and "dive bar" are two terms rarely associated with each other, but Montauk has a stable of colorful, low-key joints not named Sloppy Tuna. Most notable is The Dock, where you’re just as apt to be told what you can’t have as what you can. The list of prohibited items includes credit cards, cellphones, strollers, screaming kids, requests, dirt bags, whining, wimps and chickenhawks.
"That list has grown over the years, the things that annoy me," admits proprietor George Watson. What happens if someone breaks a rule? "I have a bullhorn," says Watson, who speaks with a certain sense of pride when noting that he had just caught a cellphone offender. "I stood at her table and kept screaming," he says. "And the rest of the patrons cheered me on."
"People don’t get it," Montauk native Maureen Keller says of what visitors imagine locals do during the fall. "They’re like, ‘You don’t have a mall?’ We don’t even have a traffic light."
BREATHING THE SALTY AIR An ocean view at Camp Hero State Park; enjoying a bonfire on the beach.
Watson started visiting Montauk to go camping in Hither Hills in the 1950s, and his father built a house here in ’57. Watson left the New York City fire department when the opportunity arose to buy the bar in Montauk Harbor. As Watson tells it, he met with the previous owner at 8 a.m., and their meeting involved blackberry brandy and ended with a handshake deal.
"I had the bar by that night," he says. The cinder block building décor can best be described as "stuffed animal head chic," and the four rotating draft beers are always fresh and ice cold. For all the things that irk him, though, Watson is rather welcoming of a new breed of Montauk bar patron. "A lot of people complain about the hipsters," says Watson. "As far as I am concerned, the hipsters are a lot better than the shark fishermen."
The hard-partying hipsters have, in recent years, been at the root of tension between the local community, second-home owners and the summer visitors. Montauk has always considered itself the "un-Hamptons," but now the nightlife and parties have turned its summer into a threemonth bacchanal.
And yet, it’s an inevitable growing pain for a village that dates to the 1700s and is close to numerous metropolises. A seaside community will always attract people who want to breathe in the salty air and blow off workweek steam in the summer.
"In the 1970s, we partied as hard as the kids do now, except we were high school kids then, and now they’re stockbrokers," says longtime Montauk Life publisher Kirby Marcantonio, who has lived in the area since the 1960s.
However, partiers get older too. Along the way to realizing they’ve outgrown skinny jeans, Marcantonio says, they might begin to think, "Maybe I want Montauk to be calmer and cooler than when I first saw it." Then they slow down and begin to appreciate the surroundings for their historical significance.
Until that happens, head to Montauk in the fall. The only thing you’ll miss from peak season are the crowds.
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