Montauk Point: a lighthouse and a surf town's unlikely permits
Compiled by Surf Haunts · Updated 2026-10-06
Montauk Point Lighthouse stands at the eastern end of Long Island, New York, above a rocky shoreline. It was completed in 1796. Elsewhere in Montauk, at Ditch Plains, surfers briefly needed a metal permit in 1967. These are two different places and two different stories.
When was Montauk Point Lighthouse built?
The Montauk Historical Society's account of the lighthouse dates its authorisation to 1792. Building work began in June 1796 and was completed that November.
It's easy to think of a structure this old as a monument whose working days are over. But the light continued as an aid to navigation, and its operation was automated in 1987.
The modern photograph also helps separate the place from its simplest postcard version. Around the tower are other buildings, a grassy bluff and a shore edged with large rocks. The lighthouse is part of a whole site.
Five dollars to go surfing
For the surfing story, we need to move away from the point to Ditch Plains, elsewhere in Montauk. In 1967, a permit scheme required surfers there to register and carry a metal medallion.
The Montauk Library's history of those early surfing years records a five-dollar fee. The medallion could be worn around the neck or attached to a surfer's shorts. Eligibility favoured residents, taxpayers, tenants and people staying in local hotels or motels.
It was difficult to enforce, and the system was phased out within months. A tiny object tells quite a lot about the effort to decide who got space in the water.
That episode belongs to Montauk's wider surf history. It shouldn't be mistaken for a contest or permit system at the foot of the lighthouse itself.
On the other side of the country, the lighthouse at Steamer Lane houses Santa Cruz's surfing museum.
Does anyone still have a medallion?
An old permit, a dated surf photograph or a memory of the point would all add something to this story. If you have one, or spot a detail we've got wrong, email us. We'll ask before publishing your contribution and agree with you how to credit it.
Our Montauk Point print
Our illustration focuses on the lighthouse complex above the rocky point, with green and ochre ground meeting the water. You can see the Montauk Point print in the collection.
Compiled from public historical sources and fact-checked against them at the time of writing – not a first-hand or local account. Corrections and memories are welcome; we verify before publishing anything sent in.