Sagamore Hill Boardwalk to be Repaired

Nearly a year after Hurricane Sandy damaged the Eel Creek Boardwalk, construction will begin Monday to repair the beach and marsh access point at Theodore Roosevelt’s historic Sagamore Hill. 

The National Park Service awarded a $199,000 contract to Chesterfield Associates, Inc. of Westhampton Beach, part of $398 million of aid set aside to assist the NPS with recovery from the storm.

The Eel Creek Boardwalk, scheduled to be completed Nov. 8, will stretch 366 feet and allow access to the picturesque harbor and the wildlife that frequents the salt marsh. Sagamore Hill’s nature trail is closed until the project is finished. 

Reconstruction was originally expected to begin early in the month but was postponed due to a lumber shortage, the National Park Service said.  

Roosevelt and his family frequently swam and camped along the Cold Spring Harbor beach.

The park’s coastline falls within the boundaries of the Oyster Bay National Wildlife Refuge, the largest refuge in the Long Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex.  The waterfront is frequented by herons, belted kingfishers and osprey, and visitors will be able to view horseshoe crabs and daggerblade grass shrimp, among many other types of wildlife, from the completed boardwalk.