North Dumpling Island is a island in Fishers Island Sound of

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...

, off the coast of

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, south of Groton, within the territory of the town of Southold on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

. The island is about north of South Dumpling Island, and is home is to the

North Dumpling Light North Dumpling Light is a lighthouse on North Dumpling Island in Long Island Sound off Fishers Island, New York. It was constructed in 1849, rebuilt in 1871, and deactivated in 1959, with the aid to navigation being moved to an automated metal ...

, which dates from 1859. The island is privately owned by

Dean Kamen Dean Lawrence Kamen (born April 5, 1951) is an American engineer, inventor, and businessman. He is known for his invention of the Segway and iBOT, as well as founding the non-profit organization FIRST with Woodie Flowers. Kamen holds over 1,000 ...

, inventor of the

Segway The Segway is a two-wheeled, self-balancing personal transporter invented by Dean Kamen and brought to market in 2001 as the Segway HT, subsequently as the Segway PT, and manufactured by Segway Inc. ''HT'' is an initialism for "human transp ...

History

In 1639,

John Winthrop John Winthrop (January 12, 1587/88 – March 26, 1649) was an English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led t ...

, son of the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, bought

Fishers Island Fishers Island (Pequot: ''Munnawtawkit'') is an island that is part of Southold, New York, United States at the eastern end of Long Island Sound, off the southeastern coast of Connecticut across Fishers Island Sound. About long and wide, it i ...

and the small islets around it, including those called "The Dumplings". Ownership of the islands, including North Dumpling, remained with the Winthrop family until 1847, when it was sold to the federal government for $600 to be the site of a lighthouse. The lighthouse and the keeper's dwelling were built and the light illuminated in 1859, and then rebuilt in 1871 with a taller tower. The lighthouse was deactivated in 1959, being replaced by an automated light on a skeleton tower, and the grounds and lighthouse were sold to a private party, George Washburn. The island was purchased in 1977 by David Levitt, president of the Doughnut Corporation of America, who remodeled and expanded the house. Levitt convinced the Coast Guard to move the light back to the stone tower and to remove the skeleton tower. Levitt added sculptures to the island, including Temple of the Four Winds, the Moon Rock, and Meditation Rock. In 1986, Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway and founder of

FIRST First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

, purchased the island for ."North Dumpling Lighthouse"
Lighthousefriends.com After a denial from local officials to build his own wind turbine on the island, Kamen "seceded" from the United States. Although Kamen's secession is not legally recognized, he still refers to the island as the "Kingdom of North Dumpling" and has established a constitution, a flag, a currency (the dumpling), a national anthem, which is a parody of the song "America the Beautiful" written by Paul Lazarus, and a navy consisting of a single

amphibious vehicle An amphibious vehicle (or simply amphibian), is a vehicle that is a means of transport viable on land as well as on or under water. Amphibious vehicles include amphibious bicycles, ATVs, cars, buses, trucks, railway vehicles, combat vehicles an ...

. The people of North Dumpling are called "Dumplonians", and Kamen is said to refer to himself as "

Lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or ar ...

Dumpling" or "Lord Dumpling II". Despite still being a part of the United States, Kamen claimed he was able to leverage his personal relationship with then-president

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

to sign an unofficial

non-aggression pact A non-aggression pact or neutrality pact is a treaty between two or more states/countries that includes a promise by the signatories not to engage in military action against each other. Such treaties may be described by other names, such as a tr ...

. Kamen was eventually able to build his turbine, and the island's electrical system was later converted to a combination of

wind Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few hou ...

and

solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic e ...

with the help of Fritz Morgan, Chief Technology Officer of

Philips Color Kinetics Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

, operating independently of the regional

electrical grid An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...

. This was accomplished by replacing all lighting on the island with

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...

s, which resulted in a 70% reduction of in-house energy consumption. Kamen says that the island is

carbon neutral Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the "p ...

due to solar panels on every building, a 10 kW wind turbine, and a "little"

Stirling engine A Stirling engine is a heat engine that is operated by the cyclic compression and expansion of air or other gas (the ''working fluid'') between different temperatures, resulting in a net conversion of heat energy to mechanical work. More specif ...

for backup power. In addition to

house, the island features a replica of

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connectin ...

References

External links

Google Maps satellite image
{{Authority control North Dumpling Islands of Suffolk County, New York Long Island Sound Private islands of New York (state) Southold, New York Islands of New York (state)