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Legacy: Nathan Hale Monument

By George DeWan | Staff Writer

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The Nathan Hale Stone in Huntington is no place to go for a history lesson.

On one of the boulder's brass plaques it states that Hale was ``captured by the British on this shore Sep. 1776.'' The truth is that Hale was most likely captured in New York -- not in Huntington.

The first Hale quote cited on the monument is: ``I will undertake it.'' He is supposed to have said that when his colonel asked for a volunteer spy from among his junior officers. The remark was first published in 1856 and repeated often by popular writers -- but there's no evidence that Hale ever said it.

The most famous Nathan Hale quote of all? Well, he most likely said something quite similar to it, and it has been refined over the years to this: ``I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.'' But the plaque reads: ``I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.''

In 1897, a private developer named George Taylor placed the memorial -- a 145-ton boulder -- at a spot where the beach meets the end of Vineyard Road, and named the area Halesite. Part of the original area later became the Village of Huntington Bay. This is roughly where Hale landed to begin his spying mission, a fact that everyone seems to agree is true. In 1976 the boulder was donated to the town and moved well inland to a grassy island in front of the American Legion hall, where Mill Dam Road meets New York Avenue.

There it stands, history set in stone.

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