The big, white anchor attached to the tree near Discovery Hall as you come into SoMAS is a “Navy Anchor”.
In 1980 the Marine Sciences Research Center had a project in the Lower Bay of New York Harbor (Burial of Dredged Sediment Beneath the Floor of New York Harbor) with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The Army Corps of Engineers set a marker buoy attached to this anchor at the site. When the project was over the anchor was pulled up and dropped off at the USACE facility in Bayonne, NJ (Caven Point), and offered to the Marine Sciences Research Center. Chester Arnold (MS, 1982) and Dr. Henry Bokuniewicz rented a truck and drove out to get it. On the way back, the truck broke down somewhere on the (long) approach ramps to the Lincoln Tunnel. In 1980, there were no cell phones, so Arnold and Bokuniewicz walked down into a (rather unpleasant) part of New Jersey and called the rental company who indicated they would send another truck and “transfer over load”.
The white anchor easily weighs more than 2000 lbs.
Bokuniewicz advised the rental company that they weren’t going to be able to transfer the load without a fork-lift, and instead the truck was towed to a salvage yard nearby. The anchor was moved to the replacement vehicle with a pay loader truck successfully made the trip back to Stony Brook University. The tree was as far as the anchor made it in the unloading process. Facilities Manager Cliff Jones, now retired, painted the anchor white and secured it with chains to the tree. The tree has since grown around the anchor.
