Little islands with a long history
NORWALK — Chimon and Shea, Sheffield and Cockenoe — when people think of the Norwalk Islands, these are a few that come to mind.
Lost in the mix of the larger, more memorable islands, though, are a smattering of smaller ones that only those truly familiar with area waters can name. These small islands, most of which are privately owned or largely unusable, are mostly concentrated in the small bay between Sheffield and Shea islands.
For Norwalk native Connor Cotaling, the best parts of the summer reside on one such island. At week’s end, Cotaling abandons the mainland, leaving the stresses of everyday life on its shores, and embarks for the home shared by members of his extended family on L’Hammock Island.
Once fully submerged in water, L’Hammock was transformed into a livable piece of property some time in the late 1800s, Cotaling said, when its original owner erected a retaining wall around the 1.7-acre hummock and filled it in with sand and rock.
Over the course of a century, three homes sprouted out of the “island,” one of which the Cotaling family eventually landed in 1962.
“It’s nice to have a place to get away from everything that is only 20 minutes away,” Cotaling said.
Come Friday night, after a long week of work at the family’s auto body business, Cotaling, 28, his cousins and some friends unmoor his
boat from the East Norwalk Boat Club and putt out of the Norwalk River.
The route transports them away from the bright lights of city and toward the tranquil waters of Shea Bay. To the right, they pass Shore and Country Club, with Calf Pasture Beach simultaneously drifting past on their left. There, they chug along, careful not to create a wake, until they pass the red-and-green channel marker at the end of the city’s harbor.
Free from the confines of the harbor, Cotaling opens the boat’s throttle and propels the boat past Betts Island, located to the northeast of Chimon Island, on their port side.
At 14.8-acres, Betts is one of the larger satellite islands and the first significant body of land boaters see as they enter Long Island Sound. Through the years, the island has changed as it passed from one owner to another.
In 1874, a group of 34 oystermen pooled money to purchase Betts, where they later constructed a watch tower from which they could keep a close eye on their oyster beds. The island transferred hands in 1929, two weeks before the stock market crashed, bought by Capt. Frederick Lovejoy and Clarence Merritt, and ever since the island has been split into two parcels, each with its own home.
From Betts, Cotaling’s sleek red power boat passes through one of Norwalk’s trickiest stretches of water, where the inexperienced could easily beach their boats on the unseen shores of Tree Hammock, Sandy Hammock or Dog Island, which are visible only at low tide.
Much as these islands remain largely hidden, so too do their histories. In the annals of history, Tree Hammock and Sandy Hammock are mentioned merely as footnotes to Shea Island, and Dog Island’s lone claim to fame is that a duck hunting club once tried and failed to buy the modest tract of land.
Where some boaters might struggle to navigate this boater’s obstacle course, Cotaling clears it easily despite the dimming light, as though doing it more through memory than sight, moments later docking his boat at his home away from home.
To the northeast, you can see Wood Island, a private residence that is also home to prospering nest of ospreys. L’Hammock’s sister island, Little Hammock, lies to the southeast where a small home sits on a slightly larger spit of land.
Once, these islands, along with L’Hammock, all belonged Gershom Burr Smith. While the financial troubles of his son, Theodore Smith, marked the end of their ownership of the islands, it also marked the beginning of a long history that led to the Cotalings, and families like theirs, seizing their own piece of paradise.