Crazy Facts About Gardiner’s Island, Long Island’s Most Off-Limits Place

Sitting quietly between the North and South Forks of Long Island’s East End is a place almost no one ever gets to see. Gardiner’s Island is privately owned, fiercely protected, and steeped in more than four centuries of history. It has survived colonial wars, royal decrees, pirate legends, family feuds, and modern development pressure. You can’t go there, but you can absolutely marvel at the facts.

Here’s what makes Gardiner’s Island one of the most unusual places on Long Island.

The Crazy Facts

• The Montaukett Indians originally called the island Manchonake, a name often translated as “place where many have died.”

• Lion Gardiner is said to have purchased the island in 1639 from the Montaukett Indians in exchange for a large black dog, some powder and shot, and a few Dutch blankets.

• Gardiner’s Island is considered the oldest estate in the United States.

• King Charles I of England granted Lion Gardiner the right to possess the island forever by royal decree.

• Gardiner was given the title “Lord of the Manor” and allowed to establish his own laws, making the island a proprietary colony.

• It is the only property in the United States that remains intact after being granted to its owner by royal decree.

• The island spans roughly 3,300 acres and remains mostly undeveloped.

• Gardiner’s Island has stayed in the same family for 17 generations.

• In 1699, the infamous pirate Captain Kidd reportedly buried treasure on the island.

• The wife of a Gardiner family farmhand was accused of witchcraft, leading to a trial years before the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts.

• Julia Gardiner Tyler, who later became First Lady as the wife of 10th U.S. President John Tyler, was born on Gardiner’s Island.

• During the 1930s, the island was put up for sale.

• A relative of the Gardiner family purchased the island for $400,000 to prevent development.

• Today, the island is estimated to be worth well over $100 million.

• The current owner is Alexandra Creel Goelet, a direct descendant of Lion Gardiner.

• Robert David Lion Gardiner was the last owner to carry the Gardiner name and had no children.

• He famously referred to himself as the 16th Lord of the Manor.

• Robert David Lion Gardiner died in 2004 at the age of 93.

• A 1976 documentary digitized by the Suffolk County Historical Society can be watched online, featuring Robert David Lion Gardiner giving a tour of the island.

• In the documentary, Gardiner describes collecting quartz on the island and bringing it to Sag Harbor to be polished with diamond dust and turned into paperweights.

• Robert David Lion Gardiner and Alexandra Creel Goelet were involved in a very public and bitter legal battle over ownership and inheritance of the island.