By Cyril Smith

A wooden water pipe, on loan from Rick Roden of the Garden City Water Dept., was featured in Garden City's Military History and Heritage Exhibit at the library. Photo credit: Kyle Bradford Smith In 1990, the Garden City Water Department made a startling discovery during a digging operation in the vicinity of Raymond Court and Stewart School fields. There, several feet below the surface, was a large wooden water pipe more than 15 inches in diameter. Evidently, the pipe was used to carry a high volume of water, substantially more than what is needed for residential homes.

A section of this pipe was recently on display at the Garden City's military history and heritage exhibit at the Garden City Public Library. The individuals who put together the exhibit were able to solve the mystery.

The area where the wooden pipe was found was where Camp Black, a Spanish American War camp, was located in 1898. When America went to war against Spain, the War Department scrambled to assemble troops for a planned invasion of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and other Spanish island possessions.

Calling upon the state militias to bolster their forces, the War Dept. needed assembly-training-mobilization camps. Garden City stepped to the fore and volunteered its land east of Clinton Road, between Stewart Avenue and Old Country Road, which were both then simple dirt roads. In late April, the first regiments from New York City and Brooklyn arrived and by mid-May they had been joined by many other regiments from throughout the state.

Tents stretched for more than a mile from Clinton Road eastward. This included two cavalry squadrons, Squadron A from its Manhattan Madison Ave. Armory and Squadron B from its Portland Ave. Armory in Brooklyn. These units represented the largest concentration of horses and cavalry New York had ever seen. It would also be the last war that the U.S. Army used cavalry.

At Camp Black, 14,000 troops were living in tents and training in the prairie-like environs from Clinton Road out to where Meadowbrook Parkway is now located. They arrived, as did a great number of visitors, by the Long Island Rail Road. The spur that the circus train now uses was a working line in 1898. At Camp Black, close order drill, physical training, target practice and maneuvers were daily routines.

To handle this military population, which was much larger than the number of 1898-period Garden City residents and more than half the size of present-day Garden City, water and sewage lines had to be installed. On a very rush basis, wood water piping was laid connecting the Garden City Water Works and Camp Black. Likewise, sewage lines were laid to settlement fields a good distance away.

In such circumstances, the piece of water pipe found by the water department was laid. It is in remarkably good condition. Construction is of a barrel (cooperage) style and it is bound by wire hoops. In operation, the wood staves swell, thus sealing the pipe. It was an efficient way to move water through many cities. The wood in the pipe has the look of those pictured in wine and whiskey casks where the aging of the wood adds to the flavor.

An article printed this past April in The New York Times details a city in Oregon now needing to replace wooden pipes more than a century old. They came in all sizes and were being installed even during World War II to preserve steel for wartime needs. Some wooden water pipes were 14 feet in diameter, and others were as small as hollowed out elm logs.

The Garden City pipe section is 15 inches, but capable of very substantial volume. Garden City resident Robert Alvey, a hydrogeologist with the Environmental Protection Agency, states that New York City still has wooden water pipes in some areas.

By mid-June, the troops at Camp Black (named after the then N.Y. State governor), except for a small rearguard contingent, boarded Long Island Rail Road trains for Tampa and then were shipped to invade Cuba and Puerto Rico. Once there, other regiments such as Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders joined them. Once the War was over, Camp Black closed for good in September of 1898. The area reverted to prairie until 1908 when William K. Vanderbilt built the Long Island Motor Parkway.