Shooters Island
40°38′36″N 74°09′35″W / 40.64333°N 74.15972°W
Shooters Island is a 43-acre (17 ha) uninhabited island at the southern end of Newark Bay, off the North Shore of Staten Island in New York City. The boundary between the modern states of New York and New Jersey runs through the island, with a small portion on the north end of the island belonging to the nearby cities of Bayonne and Elizabeth in New Jersey and the rest since 1898, as a part of the borough of Staten Island in New York City of New York state.
In colonial era times Shooters Island was used as a hunting preserve for colonists of nearby Province of New Jersey and New York Province and New York Town across the bays / harbors. During the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), Commanding General George Washington and his Continental Army used the island as a drop-off point for messages, and the place became a suitable isolated haven for spies.
Following the war, the island's large oyster beds were heavily harvested, ultimately exhausted from over harvesting by the 19th century.