Grindstone Island Preserves

Potters Beach:

The only naturally occurring sandy beach in the Thousand Islands, Potters Beach has been a favorite summertime spot for generations. On a hot summer afternoon, you'll find boats anchored off the beach and young and old playing and swimming. TILT purchased the beach in 1996 in order to ensure it remain open to the public.

Volunteers from Grindstone Island and the larger community help to look after this popular beach. The Rivergate Wheelers ATV club organized a work day in 2009. Occasionally when equipment is needed to repair storm runoff or move fallen trees or rocks, local contractors help out, making the beach a true community asset.

Howard-Smith and Rusho preserves and Heineman Songbird Forest:

Several preserves on the interior of Grindstone Island are conserving the agricultural heritage of the island, as well as sensitive habitat for various native species. Grindstone has a long history of farming; the island had a cheese factory; a hamlet that at one time was bigger than Clayton; two churches and two schools. The last one-room school in New York State was on the island, closing in 1989, and a few families still reside there year-round.

The Howard-Smith and Rusho Preserves feature grassland habitat that was historic farmland. The land trust has been working with the US Fish & Wildlife Service to reclaim some of that grassland by mowing and brush-hogging. Grassland bird species nest on the ground and need large expanses of open grassland to rear their young. This is among the most quickly disappearing habitat in the United States today because of development pressures and agricultural practices in the middle of the country.

The Heineman Songbird Forest is the breeding ground for neotropical migratory songbirds, those birds that winter in Central America and return to North America for the summer season. These birds need an undisturbed leafy canopy where predators are less likely to live.

Grindstone Island Nature Trail:

This trail connects Canoe Point and Picnic Point State Parks at the foot of Grindstone Island. TILT and NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation manage the trail.

Grindstone is the fourth largest island in the Thousand Islands at 7 miles long and 3 miles wide. For over 100 years, it had a thriving community based primarily on dairy farming, although stone quarrying and even ship-building are in its history. New York State's last operating one-room school was on the island and closed in 1989.