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National Geographic : 1979 Jul
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Cornelius Vanderbilt, ran a 260-acre farm there to provision the family mansions in Manhattan and elsewhere. "The whole island is like a garden and af fords very fine scenery," wrote Henry David Thoreau, who lived there briefly in 1843. The farms have now largely been replaced by modest homes of blue-collar workers. But every spring thousands of monarch but terflies still gather at Crookes Point to de posit their eggs on the milkweed plants. In a wooded corner of the Staten Island Unit's Great Kills Park, a cabin built by a group of neighborhood boys miraculously escaped the watchful eye of the Park Service for three months. Then ranger Chris Schil lizzi had the unpleasant task of telling the boys that the cabin, papered with Playboy magazine photos, had to come down. "We haven't got anyplace to go," one pro tested. "Everybody always tells us 'Get out of here' and 'Get out of there.' But we built this place and we're going to stay." "What would you do," Chris asked, "if someone came into your neighborhood and tore down your house?" "Bust their heads off!" one boy said. "Well, is that what I should do to you?" Chris asked them. There was silence. "To build this, you came in here and tore down a lot of trees and bushes, which was someone's house too," continued Chris. "Suppose all the kids in the neighborhood came in and did this? There wouldn't be anything left of the park or anyplace for the wildlife to live. .. ." The boys reluctantly took down the cabin within an hour. Convincing them that having the Nation al Park Service around might be as much fun as a cabin took longer. Gradually they began to participate in park-sponsored programs, such as fishing clinics, bird-watching walks, community garden projects, and photogra phy and craft workshops. "Staten Islanders have gotten used to thinking of this as their park," said Chris one afternoon as we were walking on Crookes Point. "They're afraid of busloads of outsid ers coming into the park who will disrupt the neighborhood." "Outsiders?" "Disadvantaged people from the inner National Geographic,July 1979
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