Dead Horse Bay New York: A Macabre Treasure Hunt of Bottles, Boats, and Bones
Dead Horse Bay, sounds like a lovely place for a day at the beach. It's not and about the only person that would think that would be a real Hannibal Lector type.
Dead Horse Bay was named because of the horse-rendering plants that were built on the beach back in the 1800s. Yes, they made dead horses and other animals into glue among other things. After the rendering plants closed it was turned into a landfill and filled with 1800s New Yorker junk. Then it was covered with sand and dirt to connect what was an island with Brooklyn.
Over the years waves and storms have eroded the sand covering the old Dead Horse Bay Beach landfill and exposing a "time capsule" of 1800s junk including bottles, shoes, household items, and maybe even jewelry. People visit the beach and pick up old bottles and other "treasures". Well, they did until the beach was closed in August 2020 when radioactive material was discovered and now the beach is officially closed to searchers. It was determined that the radiation level was low and not harmful so the area is reopened now. So, go pick among the broken bottles, horse bones, and shipwrecked boats and find something cool. Or you could just look at some pictures of the cool finds below.