Now part of the National Park Service's Gateway National Recreation Area, Sandy Hook and what would become Fort Hancock have been part of the New Jersey/New York experience since the colonial era. 

 

 

 

As can be seen on the map, and as used in the 500LA advert, Sandy Hook projects north and west from the Jersey Shore to create the southern "gate post" into New York's Lower Bay.  By defining the lower part of the "gateway" into the Bay, Sandy Hook was also seen as an indeal location for the first line of harbour defense, and what would become Fort Hancock was established as a site to fire upon enemy warships if they menaced the approaches to the Bay.

 

The remote location (remote in the 1860's at any rate) was also seen as ideal for artillery proving, and the army tested its guns, some of them very large, at Fort Hancock until after the First World War. The defense capabilities were also increased to include very large batteries of guns and mortars, active through the Second World War.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the remains from Sandy Hook's proving ground days, and the NPS placard describing some of the action that went on there, with a photograph contemporary to the army's actions.

 

 

 

     The Nine-Gun Battery: protected on the ocean-side with mounds of sand, this battery once mounted nine long-range heavy guns just in case an enemy fleet attempted to gain New York's Bays.  The photos below are indicative of the unfortunate condition of the battery.  But it was built in 1902 - so it's over an hundred years old.  Where does the time go?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The site was also part of the Cold War, and was home to radar-guided missle batteries until the 1970s when the hook was turned over to the National Park Service.  Eventually, many plots about the Bays were conglomerated into the Gateway National Recreation Area, and now support sight-seeing, birding, swimming, hiking, and history.

 

For me, visiting was similar to my trips to North Carolina's Outer Banks, and Sandy Hook became one of "those places I have to go to" at least once when I'm in Jersey.  It was also the subject of a number of photographs, many of which are in the New Joisey section of this website, and it was probably inevitable that some of those photos would wind up in my photoillustrations.  Like the grassy dunes seen above. 

 

 

 

 

The buildings on the cover of Roesville are part of "officers' row," duplex units with a view over

Sandy Hook Bay and the Atlantic Highlands.  While many of the buildings of the fort have been

repurposed, most of these houses have not, which seems a shame.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Offiers' Row, Fort Hancock

These buildings were especially hard hit during

the Storm, and most had supplemental supports

holding up their porches in 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The environ in Calling in the Old Fortress is part of the mortar defense emplacement of the fort.  The mortar battery was built as a set of four deep wells, with cement, brick, and sand to protect the crews and their guns from counter-battery fire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 As it appeared in 2008, one of four emplacements of the mortar battery at Fort Hancock.  This one was accessable to the public; at the time, the other three were deemed unsafe as the infrastructure has crumbled significantly since the

early 20th C.

 

 

 

 

When I started working on the movie poster for Australis, I had in mind an image that would include a beach in the background.  I've gone into some further detail about this in On The Origins Of Australis which you are welcome to read, certainly; what I did not illuminate in that text however was that the imagery of both posters (Australis and Tiahuanaco) were derived not just from a story I concoccted in my head, but actually had written at one time.  I never was all that happy with how the writing turned out, but the images I had in mind stayed with me.  The beach is important in this poster because it is where the ultimate events of the story occur: the bad man with the sword sweeps up on the coastline with his invading fleet and kills the woman before she can do her job, and thus ushers in the end of her civilization. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And again, I included a Sandy Hook beach view in an Ainsley Keegan poster and book cover:

 

 

 

 

Since I had her knocking about New Jersey in three of the later "novels," it made sense that she would eventually wind up on the Shore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me about Sandy Hook is where the Sandy Hook Channel has been maintained: there is a lot of ship traffic that passes by on its way to the marine industrial areas of New York and New Jersey, and that channel is maybe 300 feet off the tip-end of the hook, as can be seen here:

 

 

                               Probably on its way to Perth Amboy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The National Park Service also highlights the flora and fauna that now flourishes on the hook, setting aside substantial portions as nesting grounds for migrating birds in the warmer months.  As the military infrastructure has declined, and the fields of fire gone un-needed, so nature has reasserted herself, and trees, flowering cactus, and small animals have moved or grown back.  In a satellite image, the hook is very green, which you can see with something like google maps.

 

 

 

 

I've even included the hook in the photos I chose to represent "the artist" on this site, as my Tumblr "avatar," and gmail photo.  Very handy those photos:

 

 

                                    This was taken on the remains of a defensive position on the west side of the hook, overlooking Sandy Hook Bay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                        All photographs and photoillustrations on this page copywrite R. Jake Wood 2007-2013. 

                                                   Believe it or not, I did take all these photos.  Some are actually pretty good.