Photograph by Photograph by Mike Peel ( www.mikepeel.net ), Public domain. Via
Wikimedia Commons.
Big Duck, The
Built in 1931 (novelty architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. 12 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1903.
From the record
“The Big Duck is a 20-foot-tall (6.1 m) ferrocement building in the shape of a duck: a canonical example of novelty architecture. Built in 1931 in Riverhead, New York, United States, it was moved several times to various locations on eastern Long Island, ending up in Flanders in 2007.”
Wikipedia article Big Duck, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 338 National Register listings published here for Suffolk County · listed in 1997 · category: Building · built in 1931, novelty architecture.
National Register reference number.97000164- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Fires near this property
224 since 2000
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 224 fires within 5 miles of Big Duck, The
between 2000 and 2020, burning about 134 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 24 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
167
Arson/incendiarism
24
Recreation and ceremony
7
Equipment and vehicle use
6
Debris and open burning
6
Natural
5
Misuse of fire by a minor
4
Smoking
3
Power generation/transmission/distribution
1
Fireworks
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
2 workings within 5 miles of Big Duck, The: 1 past producer, 1 producer.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Flanders, the town this property stands in, in 2 storm reports between 1995 and 2001: 2 hail.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
A cold front moving across the region generated severe thunderstorms. Although some of these storms generated strong winds, the main feature was large hail.
United States Geological Survey topographic
sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then
testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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