Now that the Suffolk
County Board
of Supervisors have approved the purchased of the Prosser estate of
50 acres on the Yaphank road in Middle Island which includes the 13
acre white pine forest, something of the history of the Cathedral
Pines is of interest.
It was back in 1812 that uncle Billy Dayton
set the first white pine seedlings on his farm in Middle Island on
the road to Yaphank, which was in later years purchased by George
Prosser. As the years passed the trees grew and seeded themselves
over the land that surrounded the first planting until they covered
nearly 15 acres and became the most beautiful white pine forest on
long Island
As one walks through the quiet solitude
of these "Cathedral Pines" covered with a soft carpet of pines needles,
and gazes up into their lofty heights, the rush of our modern world
seems far away.
Several years ago a hurricane blew down over 50 of the
original tress that had grown to a height 100 feet. A neighboring
farmer, Charles Szuster who owns a saw mill, cleared them out and
sawed the logs into boards. He also hauled all the brush away and
burned it as Mrs. Prosser would not allow any fires near the forest.
Where these tress stood, and after they were blown down, the sunlight
came into the tress seeded themselves and have become a thriving
grove of growing pines again.
Mr. Prosser took great pride in keeping
the forest in first class condition during his lifetime. He built
the road running all around the forest and it was enjoyed by the
public for years until careless people went there for picnics and
left rubbish all around. Finally conditions got so bad that for
several years the white pine forest has been closed to the public,
although Mrs. Prosser gave permission to the writer to take many
groups of school children and others through this wonderland of
nature until her death last winter.
Across the road runs the Connecticut
(now called Carman's) River which was so important in the early life
of that settlers in this area as it furnished water power to run
their saw and grist mills. This is part of the acreage along the
river from South Haven to Middle Island that has taken over by the
county for a wild life refuge.
On the west side of the river lies a
large tract of land consisting of several hundred acres that has
been purchased by the Suffolk County Boy Scouts for a camping area,
and is known as Camp Wilderness At times over 2000 scouts camp there
on weekends.
Now that the Cathedral Pines will become a part of the Suffolk
County park system, we have the assurance that they will be
preserved for future generations to enjoy.
The following poem was
written especially for the cathedral pines by Walter Beverly Crane
several years ago.
" of Prosser's dreamy woods I sing.
Each tree a harp
each branch a string.
The cadence soft and low is balm,
In Prosser's
woods a hallowing calm
Tis God's cathedral, minister choir,
The singing
pines are harp and lyre;
In Prosser's woods I voice a prayer,
And
worship god and nature there."
The sentiments in Mr. Cranes poem were
also those of a great Long Island poet, William Cullen Bryant when he
wrote in 1910, "the groves were God's first temples. In the darkling wood,
amid the cool and silence, man knelt down and offered to the
mightiest, solemn thanks and supplication.