Theodore Roosevelt County Park Is Renamed Montauk County Park

The Suffolk County Legislature has voted unanimously to change the name of the Montauk Theodore Roosevelt County Park to the Montauk County Park, the reason is due to a historical error that has been overlooked since 1997.

The name was changed in 1997 from the original name of Montauk County Park to honor the arrival of President Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, who were quarantined in Montauk after the Spanish-American war in 1898. However, according to the actual history, Roosevelt never spent any time at Montauk County Park, and was actually at Ditch Plains during that time.

“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” -Theodore Roosevelt