agency developed by two brothers. They used the area around Lake Amenia to develop theaters and a living environment. The lake even had a cemetery built in one of the islands, which exists to this date as Amenia Island Cemetery. People would come to the lake for vacationing, which included a pool hall in the post office, beaches, and even a brand new golf course. Summer vacationers would take the train to Amenia Station on the New York Central Railroad to visit the lakeside resorts and summer camps on the lake. As popular as the community had become, there were no doubts that the end of vacationing in Amenia would soon imminent. In 1955, during the destruction left by Hurricane Diane swept through New York and Pennsylvania, the dam on Lake Amenia burst. Local folklore claims the floodgates to open Lake Amenia's dam were supposed to be opened for the high waters. However, the dam keeper dropped his keys into the rushing waters of Lake Amenia, and the resulting outflow caused a catastrophe. The flooding overtook much of the community, including the golf course, and although the flooding receded, the dam was never repaired. The community could not adapt to the sweeping changes from flooding and the popular community became an economic ghost town. Locals reported that the once busy streets of Amenia became empty storefronts. Much of the lake drained into wetlands, some of which has been adaptive into the Wassaic portion of the New York State Wetlands. People often would comment that Lake Amenia Road, named after the lake on the southern side of Beekman Park, served no lake. Currently After the flooding of Hurricane Diane, the former wetlands became the ownership of Walter Beekman from Beekman and Beekman Inc. He kept ownership of the land for only nineteen years before selling the land to the town of Amenia in 1974 for one dollar. The land remained unkept at that point, until the 1980s, when groups of volunteers (funded by the town) started installing ball fields and park like scenery. In 1983, Beekman Park was open for business as the new local park. In 1985, the local baseball fields started hosting their own games for locals team on the local Don Herring Field. Some of the former lake remains, including a portion of the former dam in the southwestern corner of the park, and Amenia Island Cemetery still