THe Hempstead Plains is a region of central Long Island in New York State in what is now Nassau County. It was once an open expanse of native grassland estimated to once extend to about 11,000 acres. Mercator projection of Long Island Long Island is an island in New York, USA. It has an area of 1,377 square miles (3567 km²) and a population of 7. ... Official language(s) English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  Ranked 27th  - Total 54,520 sq mi (141,205 km²)  - Width 285 miles (455 km)  - Length 330 miles (530 km)  - % water 13. ... Nassau County is a suburban county in the New York Metropolitan Area east of New York City in the U.S. state of New York. ... An Inner Mongolian Grassland. ...

The township of Hempstead, now America's most populous civil township, was first settled around 1644. Although the settlers were from the English colony of Connecticut, a patent was issued by New Amsterdam after the settlers had purchased land from the local natives. The town may have been named for either Hemel Hempstead, England or the Dutch city of Heemstede. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... New Amsterdam (Dutch: Nieuw Amsterdam) was the name of the 17th century town which grew outside of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island in the New Netherland territory (1614–1674) which was situated between 38 and 42 degrees latitude as a provincial extension of the Dutch Republic since 1624. ...

In early US history, the Hempstead Plains region was cited as one of the few natural prairies east of the Allegheny Mountains. Long Island historians George Dade and Frank Strnad wrote that it was created by an outwash of glacial sediment more than ten thousand years ago. Ther result: Vast, flat open land.

The Plains and the horses

Horse racing in the United States and on the North American continent dates back to the establishment of the Newmarket course on the Salisbury Plains section of the Hempstead Plains of Long Island, New York in 1665. This first racing meet in North America was supervised by New York's colonial Governor, Richard Nicolls. The area is now occupied by the present Nassau County region of Greater Westbury and East Garden City. World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... Westbury is a village located in Nassau County, New York in the USA. As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 14,263. ... Garden City is the name of several places around the world. ...

The year 1905 saw the opening of Belmont Park on part of the western edge of the Hempstead Plains. Its mile and a half main track is the largest dirt Thoroughbred race course in the world, and it has the sport's largest grandstand. Belmont Park is a major thoroughbred horse-racing facility located in the hamlet of Elmont, New York in Nassau County on Long Island (just outside of New York City). ...

Even for non-jockeys, sports remains a key part of the Hempstead Plains. The South Westbury section of the plains is (appropriately) known as Salisbury, and Nassau County's largest park (more than 800 acres) was established in the region as Salisbury Park in the 1940s, on the site of the former Salisbury Golf Links. The county facility has been known as Eisenhower Park since 1971.

Even during the later era of air flight activity on the Hemsptead Plains, part of the east section of privately-owned Roosevelt Field became Roosevelt Raceway, first a popular auto-racing site and then the pioneering standardbred track in horse racing, from 1940 to its closing in 1988. Standardbred harness racing horses are so called because in the early years of the Trotting Registry, the standardbred stud book established in the United States in 1879 by the National Association of Trotting Horse Breeders, only horses who could race a mile in a standard time or better, or whose...

The Plains and the planes

Another pioneering industry on the Hempstead Plains was aviation. In 1909, inventor and manufacturer Glenn Curtiss had just established the first airplane flight of one kilometer in a straight line. That July, he relocated his base of operation from his native upstate New York to Mineola. Curtiss, at the control of his biplane the Golden Flyer, he circled the plains' Washington Avenue field for, more than 52 minutes, showing what this newfangled craft could do and earning the Scientific American prize for a flight of more than 25 kilometers. Glenn H. Curtiss at the Grande Semaine dAviation in France in 1909 Glenn Hammond Curtiss (May 21, 1878 – July 23, 1930) was an aviation pioneer and founder of the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, now part of Curtiss-Wright Corporation. ... Mineola is the name of several places in the United States of America: Mineola, New York Mineola, Texas This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Scientific American is a popular-science magazine, published monthly since August 28, 1845, making it the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. ...

Some 15 years later, the Hempstead Plains had earned the appellation Cradle of Aviation. Facilities such as Hazelhurst Field, Roosevelt Field, Mitchel Field and Curtiss Field provided the eastern US's hub of private and even military air activity. Roosevelt Airfield was an airfield in Garden City, Nassau County, New York. ... Mitchel Field is a complex located in Uniondale, New York, and home to Nassau Coliseum, Mitchel Athletic Complex, Nassau Community College and Hofstra University. ...

The most famous flight from the Hemsptead Plains was Charles Lindbergh's in 1927. On May 20-May 21, Lindbergh was the first pilot to fly solo and non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean, from Roosevelt Field to Paris aboard the single-engine The Spirit of St. Louis. (His grandson Erik Lindbergh repeated this trip 75 years later in 2002 in 17 hours 17 minutes.) Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Location Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country France Région ÃŽle-de-France Département Paris (75) Subdivisions 20 arrondissements Mayor Bertrand Delanoë  (PS) (since 2001) City Statistics Land... This article is about an aircraft. ... Erik Lindbergh (born 1965 or 1966) is an aviator, a promoter of space tourism and artist. ...

With the mid-century period came commercial development of the Plains region. The west section of Roosevelt Field (once known as Curtiss Field before its 1929 merger with Roosevelt) ceased operations in 1951 and has been occupied since 1956 by the Roosevelt Field Mall, one of the world's largest indoor shopping centers.

To the east, the former Roosevelt Raceway section is occupied by Roosevelt Raceway Center, which includes several stand-alone stores and the current Raceway Theatre. The section north of the raceway, development on which dates back to the 1960s, is occupied by The Source Mall (anchored by the flagship of the Fortunoff department stores) and the Costco center. Fortunoff is a New York-based retailer of jewelry, furniture, and other discount goods. ...

Mitchel Field, which includes the Hempstead Plains site formerly known as Camp Mills, housed an Air Force base until 1961 and is currently used for mutliple sites, including the Cradle of Aviation Museum, Nassau Community College, Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and some of the housing for Hofstra University. An aviation museum located in Long Island, NY. Contains full scale models of airplances from various time periods. ... Nassau Community College is located in Garden City in Nassau County on Long Island. ... Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, commonly known as Nassau Coliseum (or simply The Coliseum), is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Uniondale, New York, on Long Island. ... Hofstra University is a private insitution of higher learning located in Hempstead, Long Island, New York (USA) founded in 1935 on the basis of the estate of wealthy businessman and heiress William and Kate Hofstra. ...

The last remaining few acres of untouched Hempstead Plains ground are thought to exist near Nassau Community College.