Washington Spy Trail traces route of Culper Ring

Take a ride along the Washington Spy Trail, from Oyster Bay’s Raynham Hall to the Brewster House in Setauket, and you will find a long-vanished Long Island — one that existed during the period of 1776-83, when what is now Nassau and Suffolk was occupied by the British.

The 50-mile trail — mostly along Route 25A, known in the 18th century as the Kings Highway — tells the tale of that occupation and the spies who covertly fought against it.

The British needed the farms and fields of Long Island to provide food and forage for their 30,000 troops in New York City. But its strategic location also afforded ready access to George Washington’s army across the Sound in Connecticut. Thus, much of Long Island essentially became a nest of spies, whose furtive presence is still almost palpable behind the gas stations and convenience stores along 25A.

“Use your imagination and bring your mental eraser,” recommended Raynham Hall’s executive director, Harriet Gerard Clark.

Raynham Hall, now a museum, is about two miles north of Route 25A. Yet it’s an important landmark on the trail: This was the family home of Robert Townsend, a merchant whose intelligence on British plans, gathered in the coffeehouses of lower Manhattan, was the precious commodity carried along the Kings Highway to the so-called Culper Spy Ring’s principals in Setauket — and then across the Sound to Washington.

Which makes a point about the Spy Trail: It’s only a small slice of the picture. To follow the actual trail of the Culper Spy Ring, said Clark, you’d need to take a subway to downtown Manhattan. On the trail’s eastern end, she said, “You’d have to get a whaleboat to get you across the Sound.”

The main goal of the trail is to promote local history and culture on the North Shore of Nassau and Suffolk. The initiative started in the 1990s but languished.

And then, “Turn” happened.

Starting with its first season in 2014, the AMC series, “Turn: Washington’s Spies,” wove an entertaining (if dramatized) tale around the Culper Spy Ring and the very real people — Abraham Woodhull, Caleb Brewster, Anna Strong and Townsend — who were part of it.

“ ‘Turn’ put the spy ring on the map,” said Gloria Rocchio, president of the Ward Melville Heritage Organization in Stony Brook. “It generated a lot of interest.”

She was able to use the buzz around the show to garner renewed support for the project. In 2017, the same year the final season of “Turn” aired, the Washington Spy Trail was declared a New York State Historical Trail.

The route is now marked by 26 brown, aluminum signs, each with a distinctive logo meant to depict the coach used by Washington, then the new country’s president, during his 1790 visit to Long Island. As part of that trip, he visited Setauket, where legend has it he may have thanked the members of the Culper Spy Ring at a private meeting.

Those signs — and a map that lists 17 attractions along the trail, including the Huntington Historical Society, the Brewster House, the Long Island Museum in Stony Brook and Raynham Hall — will help you traverse the route. But the real attraction is the historic churches, village greens, plaques and museums that are a fixture in almost every village along 25A. Each have fascinating stories to tell.

“There are a lot of sights worth learning about,” said Bev Tyler of the Three Village Historical Society. “I’d suggest doing some exploring on your own.”

For more information on the Washington Spy Trail, including a map, visit
washingtonspytrail.com.