Lake Montauk
Coordinates: 41°04′07″N 71°55′41″W / 41.068675°N 71.92800°W
Lake Montauk is a 900-acre (360 ha) embayment in Montauk, New York that is home to the largest commercial and sporting fish fleets in the state of New York.
The lake (originally referred to on maps as Lake Wyandanch and commonly referred to as the "Great Lake") was a freshwater lake until 1927 when Carl Fisher blasted a hole on the northern shoreline to connect it to Block Island Sound and the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Before the entrance to Montauk Harbor was created, the Great Lake was the largest body of freshwater on Long Island, more than double the size of Lake Ronkonkoma.
Fisher's efforts were intended to use the lake as the port of his planned development to turn Montauk into the "Miami Beach of the North." On Star Island, a small island in the lake, he built the Montauk Yacht Club and Star Island Casino. His other projects included Montauk Manor, Montauk Playhouse, Montauk Downs golf course, and the six-story Montauk tower. Fisher renamed the lake Lake Montauk.
After Fisher opened and dredged the lake, the lake replaced Fort Pond Bay as Montauk's main port (Fort Pond Bay is notoriously shallow and rocky with one of its more famous groundings being the HMS Culloden during the American Revolution).
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