Editing Eastport, New York (section)

==History==
Eastport town is built on [[Shinnecock Indian Nation|Shinnecock]] land. The present hamlet dates to 1772, when two men built the dam that formed what has come to be called the West Pond, which created a dividing line between [[Brookhaven (CDP), New York|Brookaven]] and [[Southampton, New York|Southampton]].<ref name=Michne>{{cite book |last= Michne|first=Ronald |author-link= |date=2004 |title= Historical Profiles of Eastport Speonk/Remsenburg Westhampton |url= |location= |publisher= |page=2 |isbn=}}</ref> They built two mills below the dam, a saw mill and a [[gristmill]]. By 1845, the area to the east of the West Pond had come to be known as Waterville. The land to the west was called Seatuck, after a nearby creek. When, in 1860, the United States Postal Department needed to define the town to deliver mail, it combined the two areas. The name Seatuck was dropped for being too similar to [[Setauket, New York]] and the combined area was named Eastport.<ref name=Michne /><ref name=wilcox1975>{{cite book |author= [[Leroy Wilcox]] |date= 1975|title= History of Eastport 1775-1975, and Eastport Gospel Church, 1822-1975|url= https://longislandgenealogy.com/EastportGospel.pdf|location= Eastport|publisher= |page= |isbn=}}</ref>

Eastport was long and best known as the center of Long Island's duck industry.<ref name=wilcox1975 /> The first duck farms were established in the area in the 1880s.<ref>{{cite report |author= |author-link= |date= |title=Long Island Duck Farm History and Ecosystem Restoration Opportunities Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, Appendix A: Long Island Duck Farming History |url=https://www.suffolkcountyny.gov/Portals/0/formsdocs/planning/EnvPlanning/LIDuckHistory/AppA.pdf  |publisher= US Army Corps of Engineers & Suffolk County |page= 3|docket= |access-date= |quote=}}</ref> In the first half of the 20th century it was the capital of the production of [[American Pekin|Long Island ducks]], producing 6.5 million ducks a year from 29 farms going to market. By 1915, the Long Island Duck Growers' Association was located in Eastport; and, in 1949, [[Cornell University]] established the Duck Disease Research Laboratory there.<ref>[https://www.vet.cornell.edu/animal-health-diagnostic-center/programs/duck-research-lab/ Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine - Duck Research Laboratory]</ref> Routine [[Disease surveillance|surveillance]] carried out by the Duck Disease Research Laboratory identified the first case of [[Duck hepatitis virus|Duck hepatitis virus (DHV-1)]] in the United States 1949 and, in 1967, the first case of [[Duck plague]] on the American Continent.<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Leibovitz|first1=  Louis|last2= Hwang|first2= Jen|date= 1968|title= Duck Plague on the American Continent|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1588237 |journal=Avian Diseases |volume= 12|issue=2 |pages=361–365+367–373+375–378 |doi= |access-date=}}</ref>

Practically all duck farms have been phased out and the descendants of the original farmers sold the valuable waterfront property for residential development projects.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.town.southampton.ny.us/areastudy/hiselect1.pdf |title=Historical Profiles of Eastport, Speonk/Remsenburg, Westhampton |access-date=2008-01-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060925230759/http://www.town.southampton.ny.us/areastudy/hiselect1.pdf |archive-date=2006-09-25 |url-status=dead }}</ref>