New York is a city of islands: large ones like Manhattan, plus smaller scraps off Orchard Beach in the Bronx, such as City Island and Hart Island (New York’s potter’s field), as seen on the map below.
And then there are even tinier chunks of bedrock that aren’t usually named on maps: Rat Island, the Chimney Sweeps Islands, and High Island.
Today, these islands dotting easternmost Long Island Sound are mostly uninhabited bird rest stops.
Hundreds of years ago, however, they were known as the Devil’s Stepping Stones:
“According to fable, Indians were chasing the Devil across the sound, and every time he put his cloven hoof down, an island was formed,” reported a 1995 New York Times article.
Though it’s technically inside Long Island’s borders, the nearby Stepping Stones Lighthouse gets its name from this fascinating legend.
Tags: Bronx islands, City Island, Devil's Stepping Stones, Harbor Islands of New York City, Hart Island Potters Field, Islands in Long Island Sound, Manhattan Indian legends, New York City's Islands, New York native myths, Stepping Stones Lighthouse
Ephemeral New York 
July 26, 2011 at 5:21 am |
great find. i never heard those stories before.
July 29, 2011 at 8:39 pm |
My neighbors wrote a book about New York’s other islands: http://www.amazon.com/Other-Islands-York-City-ebook/dp/B0052FYPXG
March 10, 2012 at 12:18 am |
Legend has it that the Devil was chased out of the Sound by Indians. The Devil threw huge Stones over his shoulder to
keep the Indians from catching him. Another version has the Devil
laying down stones for his escape. The Steppingstone Lighthouse
marks the stones for passing boats. Actually, the stones are probably left from A glacial moraine. I sail my Sunfish out there
and it is a great spot.
Ron Brinn
Great Neck
October 17, 2017 at 2:17 pm |
[…] The lighthouse marks Stepping Stones Reef, which is part of a group of the twenty nearby islands and rocks referred to as the Devil’s Stepping Stones. […]