Ellis Island the region. The oyster beds remained a major source of food for nearly three centuries. Landfilling to build the railyards of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Central Railroad of New Jersey eventually obliterated the oyster beds, engulfed one island, and brought the shoreline much closer to the others. During the colonial period, Little Oyster Island was known as Dyre's, then Bucking Island. In the 1760s, after some pirates were hanged from one of the island's scrubby trees, it became known as Gibbet Island. It was acquired by Samuel Ellis, a colonial New Yorker and merchant possibly from Wales, around
Rudolph Oyster House Rudolph Oyster House Located on the grounds of the Long Island Maritime Museum, The "Rudolph Oyster House" was built circa 1890. It is typical of the many oyster culling houses which once lined the local waterfront, providing work for hundreds of predominantly Dutch immigrant local residents. Until 1938, the local oyster industry was the center of a booming economy. Unfortunately, a major hurricane on September 21 of that year wiped out the south shore oyster beds. Today the "Rudolph Oyster House" is one of the few remnants of that heritage. Thousands of immigrants came to villages like West Sayville in