Tuxis Island, sometimes uncommonly spelled Tunxis, is a small, uninhabited island about off the shore of

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

New Haven County New Haven County is a county in the south central part of the U.S. state of Connecticut. As of the 2020 census, the population was 864,835, making it the third-most populous county in Connecticut. Two of the state's top 5 largest cities, New ...

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 capita ...

in the United States. Tuxis Island is about in area, and covered mostly in trees. The island's elevation is above sea level. Tuxis Island was formed by glaciers, a fact that is evident by the many

glacial potholes A kettle (also known as a kettle lake, kettle hole, or pothole) is a depression/hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. The kettles are formed as a result of blocks of dead ice left behind by retreating gla ...

and small boulders on the south of the island. The island itself is made mostly of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

, like most of the other islands nearby, although there is some sand. Two other islands, Gull Rock and Round Rock, are relatively close to Tuxis, as is Madison Reef to the south, and several unnamed rocks and islets. These landforms are sometimes associated with the

Thimble Islands The Thimble Islands is an archipelago consisting of small islands in Long Island Sound, located in and around the harbor of Stony Creek in the southeast corner of Branford, Connecticut. The islands are under the jurisdiction of the United Sta ...

. The name Tuxis comes from the

Native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

words ''Tuxisshoag'' and ''Tuckshishoag''. Tuxis Island is closed to people without permission from May to August to protect the many species of birds that nest there. Tuxis Road in Madison Connecticut was also named after the island.

History

The first people on Tuxis Island were the Hammonasset people. Tuxis Island has had various owners dating back to 1674. The current owners are the Madison Beach Club and a private shellfishing company. The

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...

ran a camp named Camp Jewell on the island for nine years, from 1901 to 1910. In 1914, a congressman by the name of

Thomas L. Reilly Thomas Lawrence Reilly (September 20, 1858 – July 6, 1924) was a U.S. Representative from Connecticut. Biography Born in New Britain, Connecticut, Reilly attended the common schools and was graduated from the Connecticut State Normal Schoo ...

requested a breakwater to be built from the west tip of Tuxis Island to Round Rock, and northwest towards the Madison Wharf.

Flora and fauna

Most of the animals seen on Tuxis Island are birds. There are about fifteen species of birds that nest on Tuxis, including

geese A goose ( : geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera '' Anser'' (the grey geese and white geese) and ''Branta'' (the black geese). Some other birds, mostly related to the she ...

egrets Egrets ( ) are herons, generally long-legged wading birds, that have white or buff plumage, developing fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Egrets are not a biologically distinct group from herons and have the same build ...

herons The herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera ''Botaurus'' and ''Ixobrychus ...

seagulls Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, ...

osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

s, and

oystercatchers The oystercatchers are a group of waders forming the family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, ''Haematopus''. They are found on coasts worldwide apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and South East Asia. The e ...

. Some smaller mammals, amphibians, and reptiles can be found here as well. The waters surrounding the island are home to several species of fish. Shellfish and other invertebrates can be found living on and around Tuxis Island. The forest on Tuxis Island is mainly deciduous, with the occasional evergreen tree. Grasses, ferns, mosses, lichens, and some small shrubs are among the plants that constitute the undergrowth. Many algae cling to the rocks offshore. Fungi can be found here as well, due to the seaspray and tree cover creating a cool, damp environment.

Folklore

According to the

Algonquin Algonquin or Algonquian—and the variation Algonki(a)n—may refer to: Languages and peoples *Algonquian languages, a large subfamily of Native American languages in a wide swath of eastern North America from Canada to Virginia **Algonquin la ...

, a giant named Odziozo formed Tuxis Island when he scooped up a handful of rocks from the mainland and flung it into the

Sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' b ...

. The resulting splash filled up the hole, creating Tuxis Pond. A rock that fell out of his hand became Samson Rock, which he stepped on when turning to go back home, resulting in a large footprint-shaped indent in the rock. Later, colonists from Europe assigned the same legend to

Samson Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...

(thus the name of the rock), from the Bible.

References

{{authority control Coastal islands of Connecticut Landforms of New Haven County, Connecticut Madison, Connecticut

History

Flora and fauna

Folklore

See also

References