Cretaceous Era (70 million years ago): Glacial sands, clays and gravels are deposited along the west side of Hempstead Harbor.

1654: Three-rail fence built by local Cow Neck farmers around sand banks, to contain their cattle.

1800: Population of New York City is 60,000.

1855: Population of New York City is 800,000.

1860s: Sandmining begins in Port Washington, spurred by over a dozen small-scale entrepreneurs such as John Murray, who establishes Gallagher, Murray and Gallagher Sand and Stone Company.

1871: Sand used to build Fort Schuyler is mined by Murray and Reid Sand Company.

1890s: First large wave of immigration to Long Island from Southern and Eastern Europe.

1893: GK and JB King Company founded first large sandmining plant in Port Washington.

Early 1900s: One-fifth of Village of Baxter Estates is mined for sand.

1903: John Murray retires and sells his interests to Phoenix Sand and Gravel Company.

1906: Treadwell Farm purchased for mining by Goodwin Brothers.

1906: Generoso Pope comes to New York from the province of Benevento in Italy and eventually becomes owner of Colonial Sand and Stone, the biggest construction supply firm in the United States.

1908: Sandminers’ strike broken by 50 hired men from the Federal Detective Agency. 125 sandminers arrested.

1910: Smith and Pearsall estates mined by Crescent Sand and Gravel; Cocks property mined by Titus Sand and Gravel.

1912: Goodwin Sand and Gravel Company builds tunnel under Sands Point Road for small steam engines pulling cars to transport sand to Manhasset Bay barges.

1916: Gallagher Brothers Sand Company builds school for miners’ children, later to become part of Port Washington School District #4. Demolished in 1975.

1917: Film “Rose of the World” shot at sandbanks.

1925: Indian (Shinnecock) artifacts discovered by sandminers in cliffs along West Shore Road.

1930s: Colonial Sand and Gravel mines area around Soundview Village.

1938: Unionization and strike against McCormack Sand Company and others result in higher wages and better working conditions.

1957: Conveyor belts replace electric railway in sandbanks

1980s: Final cut made for sandmine under Cliff Way in Port Washington, heralding the end of an era.

1982-4: Port Washington Public Library launches oral history project about sandmining, funded by the New York Council for the Humanities and the New York State Council on the Arts (Folk Arts Program)

1983: Strike by International Union of Operating Engineers Local 15 against McCormack Sand Company.

2002: Paul D. Pope Entertainment Group, Inc., provides funding for sandmining CD-ROM.

Sources: Dr. George Williams; Ernie Simon Collection, Oral History Collection, Reference Files, Port Washington Public Library.