The First Land Conservation on Fishers Island

The origin of the Museum’s land conservation efforts can be traced to a meeting on August 2, 1965. On that summer day, Museum President H. Lee Ferguson, Jr., known as “Lee,” proposed to the Board that vacant land be obtained as a sanctuary under the auspices of the Museum. The minutes of that meeting reveal that the Board embraced this new “progressive course.”

Lee Ferguson, son of H.L. Ferguson and older brother of Charles B. Ferguson, died shortly thereafter, on Oct. 14, 1965. The Board subsequently researched properties on both the East and West ends of Fishers Island, looking for possible sites for a bird sanctuary that would serve as a memorial for Lee. They decided upon a 3.7-acre West end site—the current Sanctuary behind today’s Museum. A group of Lee’s friends donated the money to purchase the land from the Fishers Island Utility Company for the sum of $500, and Bishop Hobson conducted a dedication ceremony for the new H. Lee Ferguson, Jr. Wildlife Sanctuary on August 19, 1967, inaugurating a living memorial to the man who—more than half a century ago—envisioned the need for wildlife sanctuaries on Fishers Island. Notably, it is the first of 80 land parcels on Fishers Island, comprising approximately 375 acres, that are currently held by the Museum’s Land Trust to be conserved “in perpetuity.”