A series of articles on the role that the Town of Babylon has played in building America

by William H. Frohlich

If you lived in the 1600s, it wasn’t where you might think. It was the bay captured by Fire Island and the south shore of Long Island. Today, we call it the Great South Bay.

And where did Fire Island get its name? Some say the bush berries and Poison Ivy leaves that cover it turn red in the fall. It is more likely a corruption of "Five Islands," due to the breaches made by storms carving it into five pieces. Or, it could be named for fires set by pirates on the beaches. They would start fires to give early sea captains the false impression that they were coming to an opening in the barrier beach to get into the Bay. When they ran aground, their cargo would be looted. (I like that one!)

A lot has changed since the first white settlers came to the Town of Babylon. That was nearly 200 years before the Town of Babylon was created through its division from the Town of Huntington. As we celebrate our Town’s 130th anniversary, we should remember that our history is as rich and long as the rest of Long Island, which was founded in 1640. It was just 20 years after the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock that they migrated through Connecticut and cut across Long Island Sound (the one to our north), and to our shores.

Of course, our heritage predates the arrivals of the Pilgrims. What we know as Montauk Highway was originally a Native American path along the head of the necks of land that jut into the Great South Bay. We have the Indians to thank, too, for what we know today as Route 110, Deer Park Avenue and Straight Path. These paths connected the north shore with the south in our Town and are very important today.

So where did the name "Babylon" come from? It was "Huntington South" and became "South Huntington" in 1826, to "Babylon" in 1830, and even "Seaside" in 1867, then back to Babylon the next year. According to most authorities, Nathaniel Conklin engraved the name "New Babylon" on his a tavern, and felt that it was going to be a "Babylon," in the other biblical sense. He said, "It will be a New Babylon,". Anyway, we are happy today that the name stuck, and in 1872 when the Town was separated from Huntington, it became permanent.

So what’s in a name? For Babylon, a great deal!

The writer is Babylon Town Historian. If you have a question for the Babylon Historian, send an e-mail message to bill@gonpta.com.)