Horse Island, at 17 acres (69,000 m²), is the largest of 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 ...

off

Stony Creek Stony Creek may refer to the following waterways or communities: Waterways Australia * Stony Creek, a tributary of the Allyn River, in the Hunter region of New South Wales * Stony Creek, a tributary of the Brogo River, in the South Coast region ...

, a section of

Branford, Connecticut Branford is a shoreline New England town, town located on Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, about east of downtown New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven. The town is part of the South Central Connecticut Planning Regi ...

. It is owned by

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

and is maintained as an

ecological Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratories are found in a variety of settings such as schools ...

by Yale's

Peabody Museum of Natural History The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University (also known as the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History or the Yale Peabody Museum) is one of the oldest, largest, and most prolific university natural history museums in the world. It ...

. It was purchased and donated to the university in 1971 as a convenient addition to the

Yale Coastal Field Station Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges char ...

in nearby Guilford, which has its own dock and boats, and is also managed by Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History. A large house on the island has been kept in good repair and can serve as a base for experimenters or others remaining on the island for overnight stays or longer. According to the Yale Alumni Magazine, "Horse Island used to be a summer retreat; there’s still an eight-room house and evidence of a tennis court. The island now functions as a natural classroom, used for research and teaching. It’s also visited by a wide variety of migrating birds, which are actively studied by Yale researchers." In 2020, Yale faculty and students from the School of Architecture partnered with the Peabody Museum to build a teaching and coastal research center for the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. The center was built using a "regenerative approach." This approach aims to reduce the

carbon footprint A carbon footprint (or greenhouse gas footprint) is a calculated value or index that makes it possible to compare the total amount of greenhouse gases that an activity, product, company or country Greenhouse gas emissions, adds to the atmospher ...

of the building, from construction to daily use, and limits the number of toxic materials used during construction. The Center will function off-grid with a kitchenette, toilet (which incinerate waste into ash), and two bunks for sleeping. The Center will feature a 30-foot-by-16-foot classroom with projection screens and barn-style doors. The origins of the island's name are not known. Some say that at some point a cargo of horses may have found its way to the island from a capsized or wrecked ship, but no physical or documentary traces of such an event exist. Others speculate that the island's horseshoe shape may have influenced its name. For many years it was owned by an executive of Standard Oil named Clark, and was called "Clark's Island" by everyone. When James and Esther Rettger purchased the island in 1946 they restored the original name as found on the geodetic survey maps.

References

*
Wealthy Widow Buying Up Thimbles
', "New Haven Register", January 22, 2006, page A1 *

'; Stacey Stowe; "In the Region/Connecticut", ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', July 30, 2006; Real Estate page 10.

External links

Peabody Museum of Natural History
Thimble Islands Long Island Sound Yale University {{Connecticut-geo-stub

See also

References

External links