Although City Island is famous for its boat-building history, oyster harvesting was its most important industry long before that, and many Islanders became very wealthy during the 1800s providing oysters for the world market. 

Shell middens (heaps of discarded shells) were found over a century ago on City Island, indicating that the native Lenape people had gathered and consumed shellfish from natural beds that had existed for thousands of years. 

About 1830, a Connecticut boat builder, Orrin Fordham, purchased property on the east side of City Island and began to “plant” oysters there by throwing empty shells on top of existing reefs. Many historians now recognize City Island as the first area in New York where the commercial practice of seeding oysters took place.

 In 1853, the New York Herald reported that the largest proportion of all East River oysters used in New York came from City Island, “where there are extensive artificial and natural beds.” And in 1881, the U.S. government’s Fisheries Bureau gave credit to City Island “for developing the practice of propagating oysters from seed by throwing shells on artificial beds or prepared receptacles.” 

The methods for gathering oysters from reefs, both natural and artificial, remained the same for much of the 19th century. An oysterman in a skiff would rake up oysters from the reefs with tongs or rakes and gather them into the boat. Oyster sloops were larger and provided more room for the raked oysters, which had to be removed from debris that came into the boat with them. After being collected, the oysters would be stored in an oyster barge or container until they could be transported to the Fulton Street Fish Market by oyster schooners.  

Dredges eventually became the preferred tool, but they caused considerable damage to the reefs than the other tools and eventually diminished the reefs. It is not surprising that after the oystering business declined in the 1890s because of pollution as well as overfishing, City Islanders took the logical next step and became boat builders, the island’s major industry for another century.