Preserving Long Island
Naomi Boico

Guggenheim Elementary School
Mrs. Miller, Grade 5

Everything we have in life is from the people who came before us. The first time I visited the Science Museum of Long Island, I was so surprised to learn about its history. One of the rooms in the basement of the house that is the museum was lifted from a ship and it was used for gambling and parties. The room was completely removed and is on display at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. There are rumors that say that during Prohibition in the 1930s liquor was smuggled into this house for big parties.

If you look a hundred yards down the field outside, there are ruins of a house ‑ only the foundation is left. You can imagine that early settlers lived there. There's a road that leads up to that house where carriages drawn by horses would drive.

I learned that during a thunderstorm a tree toppled over exposing its roots. What was discovered were many oyster shells. Archaeologists thought this was somewhat strange since the shells were found too far away from the water! It was concluded that this was a Native American encampment, and these shells were a pile of trash! In other words, the locals who got the oysters from surrounding waters ate them at the camp site and then discarded the shells.

What's amazing even about this small piece of land with two tattered houses is our ability to look at history from a close distance. On the surface, are beautiful landscaped grounds with a house, but if you look a little deeper, you can go back to the time of the rumored smuggling operation. Look even deeper, you can find a society and a culture of Native Americans that lived in these parts for centuries.

If who we are is just an extension of the past, we must preserve the past to preserve us. Our history is all around us and that must be preserved.