Fire Island photos through the years

The Ocean Beach ferry docks in 1944 at Maple Avenue in Bay Shore.

The Kismet section of Fire Island in 1956.

Suffolk town supervisors board a boat for the trip back to the Captree Boat Basin on May 3, 1956.

An Ocean Beach street is in 1958.

An Ocean Beach walkway on Sept. 2, 1972, the end of the Fire Island high season.

A walkway in Kismet on June 8, 1974, the start of the Fire Island season.

A aerial view of Fire Island inlet on June 12, 1974.

Paul Jasper and Jerry Liebowitz buy lemonade from Eric Leeds, 8, on June 2, 1978, in Ocean Beach.

A wintry aerial view of Smith Point County Park on Jan. 19, 1980. The view is northward toward the Island.

A lone wagon sits in the business district of Ocean Beach on March 17, 1980.

Beach patrol officer Robert Kazanowitz works on Ocean Beach on July 26, 1980.

A group of artists from the Fine Arts League of Patchogue paint and photograph the Fire Island lighthouse on May 11, 1983, to raise funds for the lighthouse's renovation.

Wagons are the favored mode of transport for visitors coming off the ferry on Aug. 17, 1985 in Ocean Beach.

A ferry arrives at Ocean Beach, Fire Island, on May 17, 1986.

The Pearlstein family, of Franklin Square, walk and pull a wagon on April 11, 1987, to their summer house in Ocean Beach.

Ocean Beach posts a do-not list for Fire Island beach bathers on Aug. 15, 1987.

The Fire Island lighthouse on Dec. 16, 1987, after its renovation.

Gary Mellis re-enacts the July 3, 1989 protest that eventually led to his arrest in September that year. Mellis, a record producer who did the re-enactment on July 9, 1990, was protesting a ban on drinking soda on the walkways of Ocean Beach, but he also ran afoul of local law by docking his inflatable Cadillac, and playing a boom box without earphones. He spent about 10 hours in jail and eventually appealed his case.

Ranger Jim Grubner and the Miceli family, of Islip, take in the view from the top of the Fire Island lighthouse in this undated photo.