Gunnison Beach, Sandy Hook

Gunnison Beach located in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States, is part of the Sandy Hook unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area, and is managed by the National Park Service. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Ferrying From Manhattan to Bare It All on the Beach |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/nyregion/30naked.html |quote=Long one of the New York area’s best-kept secrets, Gunnison Beach, on the upper end of this barbed peninsula jutting into the harbor at the northern tip of the Jersey Shore, has been a favorite of naturists, locals say, since Army troops at Sandy Hook’s historic Fort Hancock ... It opened to the public as part of the Gateway National Recreation Area in 1975 ... |publisher=New York Times |date= |accessdate=2008-06-30 ]

History

It was named for the Gunnison Battery, a fortification built by the US Government to protect New York Harbor in the 1800s. [Most likely named after John Williams Gunnison] Remnants of the battery, including gun emplacements, overlook the beach. It was once part of Fort Hancock, a test site and proving ground for the US Army for many years and was later the site of a Nike missile defense installation. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=On the Hook for sun, fun -- History - and nudity - at the Shore |url= |quote=Nearly three centuries ago, the merchants of lower Manhattan kept losing ships to the sandbars that lined the narrow channel leading to New York City. Upset over the growing losses, the merchants banded together and built a lighthouse on the edge of Sandy Hook in order to guide ships safely to the young city. The lighthouse was so effective that the British ... |publisher=Bergen Record |date=August 31, 2005 |accessdate=2007-08-21 ] The base was decommissioned in 1972, and a few years later the beach where the soldiers used to skinny dip, opened as a public clothing-optional beach. [cite news|url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92737363|title=Nude Beach Thrives In New Jersey|publisher=NPR|date=July 21, 2008|author=Margot Adler|accessdate=2008-07-25|quote=It officially opened as a clothing-optional beach not long after it was decommissioned as a military base in 1972. When it was a military base, the soldiers — all men — would skinny dip, according to Dale Distasio, president of Friends of Gunnison.]

It is, by custom, the only nude beach in New Jersey, and is the largest clothing-optional recreation area on the East Coast. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= All Undressed and So Many Places to Go |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990DE6D91030F931A3575AC0A9679C8B63 |quote=Crowds are also increasing these final summer days at Blacks Beach near San Diego, at Mazo Beach on the lower Wisconsin River and at Gunnison Beach in Sandy Hook, New Jersey, a "dress optional" sand strip run by the National Park Service that was recently deemed by the Clean Beaches Council, an environmental group, one of the top 10 beaches in the United States. |publisher=New York Times |date=September 2, 2001 |accessdate=2007-08-21 ] [cite news |first=Faye |last=Flam |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Clothing optional may not be way of historical human |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=PI&s_site=philly&p_multi=PI&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=112F14F51E4A74A0&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |quote=Sandy Hook boasts the biggest nude beach along the Atlantic. The clothing-optional part is called Gunnison Beach ... |publisher=The Philadelphia Inquirer |date=July 17, 2006 |accessdate=2007-08-21 ] cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=In 39 Years, There's Little a Lifeguard Doesn't See |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/nyregion/31ink.html |quote=But it was with the creation of Gunnison Beach, the only clothing-optional section of New Jersey's shoreline, that it became safe to say that Tom McLaughlin had seen everything. ... On a recent Saturday, he stopped at Gunnison Beach to survey the scene. At this Eden with umbrellas, some of the naturists were engaged in an intense round of volleyball, while others happily lounged without the fear of tan lines. A new visitor approached and asked Mr. McLaughlin why everyone seemed to be on the right side of the beach. |publisher=New York Times |date=July 31, 2007 |accessdate=2007-08-21 ] [cite book |last=Gabrielan |first=Randall |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Sandy Hook |year=1999 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |quote=Gunnison Beach is now widely recognized as the park's 'nude beach,' or in sanctioned parlance, a 'clothing-optional beach.'... | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=vhKrA3ciDu4C&pg=PA125&dq=%22Gunnison+beach%22&ei=xpfuRoSbHpSq7ALQr82cBw&sig=NcNhjCa1BRJ1HhFFiueJR0sjrTo
isbn=075241240X ]

The clothing optional beach attracts nearly 5,000 naturists per weekend in the summer months. Part of the beach is shared on a seasonal basis with a reserved breeding ground for the endangered Piping Plover, a native shore bird.

ee also

*Rock Lodge Club, a family-oriented nudist club located in the New Jersey Highlands.

References

External links

* [http://flickr.com/photos/16267731@N00/474649180/ Gunnison Battery] at Flickr
* [http://www.nps.gov/gate/ Gateway National Recreation Area (National Park Service)]
* [http://www.gunnisonbeach.org/ Friends of Gunnison official website]