Saw Mill Creek Marsh

West Shore Exwy. to Kill Van Kull from River Rd. to South Ave.

Staten Island

Directions via Google Maps

This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.

A marsh is a wet area of mineral soil located around the edges of a lake or on the floodplain of a river. The marshlands of the Arthur Kill River on the western side of Staten Island were created by the receding of the Wisconsin Glacier 10,000 years ago and the slow accumulation of sediment and organic soil.

The Saw Mill Creek area was a resource to the Lenape Native Americans as well as to entrepreneurial colonists. The abundance of food present on the western shore’s salt marshes of Staten Island explains the Native Americans’ attachment to the Saw Mill Creek Marsh. They harvested oysters from the creek and cultivated corn, squash, and beans.

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