VLOG8 – Scouting Arthur Kill Ship Graveyard

First of all, this area is private property, so if you chose to enter, you will be trespassing. The area is officially called the Donjon Iron and Metal Scrap Processing Facility and owned by the grandson of the founder. It is a legal scrap and salvage yard in NYC and contains over 100 ships, many with historical significance.

According to locals, the owners are in constant legal battles with New York City to remove the rusty relics and rehab the area. However, the family counter-fights to leave the relics be, because according to them, it’s ridiculously expensive to do that and cheaper to just leave them there. Despite the obvious attraction, they are not a tourist attraction and are a habitat for many species of fish, crustaceans, birds, etc.

If you chose to visit, please keep in mind that the relics are unstable and although it’s shallow mud, it’s only accessible during low tide. (To visit during high-tide, consider checking out kayaking day tours to this same area at https://www.outerthere.com/watersports).

But the other reason you want to reconsider visiting is because the area also happens to be a former superfund site (of should have been). Due to 100 years of boat traffic, there is spillage. The area sits downstream from chemical refineries on the Jersey side and for decades, their spillage seeped into the surrounding bay, settling on the river floor. And finally, the area is also near the Freshkills Landfill. So yes, the chemical residues you’ll encounter are toxic and you should definitely avoid this area.

That said, we didn’t know any of this when we discovered this place and before the first time we explored it. When we learned this area was right here in our own backyard, we set up this scouting trip. And that’s what this vlog is actually about, how you’d experience an Outerthere Scouting Trip. So yeah, come out on our scouting trips.

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