Editing Point Lookout, New York (section)

==History==
[[File:Point Lookout from Reynolds Channel 01A (9341523108).jpg|thumb|left|Approaching Point Lookout from the northeast by water (2013).]]

Point Lookout's first known inhabitants were [[Merrick, New York|Merrick (Meroke)]] Native Americans, a tribe of the [[Algonquin people]]. The first European settlers in Point Lookout were [[Dutch people|Dutch]], who arrived in the 1640s,<ref name="Point Lookout Historical Society">{{cite web |url= http://www.pointhistorical.org/naturalhistory.html |title=The Natural History of Point Lookout |website=The Natural History of Point Lookout |author=Point Lookout Historical Society|access-date=6 February 2012}}</ref> followed by the English, in the 1660s.

In 1906, [[Long Beach, New York#1900s|Senator William Reynolds]] of [[Brooklyn]] led a consortium that purchased the entire barrier island. In 1918, Nassau By the Sea was nearly wiped out by fire.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://pointlookoutcivic.org/about/|title=Point Lookout Civic Association: about us|website=Point Lookout Civic Association|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-01}}</ref> In the 1920s, Senator Reynolds established Point Lookout Inc., which brought in concrete streets and divided the community into small plots which were sold to families for approximately $2,500 a parcel, giving rise to the Point Lookout community. Those bungalows that had not burned in Nassau By the Sea, as well as others from other marsh islands, were moved to Point Lookout and can be seen around the community today.<ref name=":0" /> The barrier beach on which Point Lookout sits has been, in one incarnation or another, there for hundreds, if not thousands of years. The first mention of Point Lookout begins to appear in the mid-19th century, as a location for whalers, and as a dangerous spot for ships. A [[United States Life-Saving Service]] Station was established at Point Lookout in 1872; ironically, it was due to the [[Wreck of the Mexico (1837)|tragic wreck of the ship ''Mexico'']] on January 2, 1837, that a U.S. Life Saving Station was created; the service remained there until farmers grew [[salt hay]] on the marshes that stretch behind the site.

A series of hotel and seasonal bungalows was built, as was a seasonal railroad connecting Point Lookout to Long Beach, but nearly all these structures were destroyed over time by either winter storms or fire. During the summer months ferries from the Woodcleft Canal in [[Freeport, New York|Freeport]] brought hundreds of day-trippers to Point Lookout's beaches, and for those who lived in Point Lookout, or in the small community to the east called Nassau By the Sea, the barrier island was a paradise.

During the fall and winter of 2018, with the beach undergoing construction, the Pavilion was torn down. {{Citation needed|date=October 2022}}

Point Lookout has small homes, densely packed into very small plots, and does not have sanitary or storm sewers.