North Dumpling Island

North Dumpling Island is a two-acre (8,100 m2) island in Fishers Island Sound, one mi (1.6 km) off the coast of Connecticut, south of Groton, within the territory of the town of Southold in New York State. The island is privately owned by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway Human Transporter and founder of FIRST, and is home to the North Dumpling Lighthouse. It is about 0.3 nmi (560 m) north of South Dumpling Island.[1]

North Dumpling Island
Dean Kamen's home on North Dumpling Island
Geography
LocationFishers Island Sound, Southold, New York
Coordinates41°17′17″N 72°01′08″W
Administration

History
The North Dumpling Navy

The island was bought by John Winthrop, son of the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and owned by the Winthrop family until 1847, when it was sold to the federal government to be the site of a lighthouse. In 1959, the beacon was automated and the lighthouse and grounds were sold to a private party. In 1986, Kamen bought it.[2]

After Kamen was denied permission to build a wind turbine on the island, he joked that he was seceding from the United States.[3][4] The island's electrical system was later converted to a combination of wind and solar power with the help of Fritz Morgan, Chief Technology Officer of Philips Color Kinetics, operating independently of the regional electrical grid. This was accomplished by replacing all lighting on the island with LEDs, which resulted in a 70% reduction of in-house energy consumption.[5][6] Kamen says that the island is carbon neutral due to solar panels on every building, a 10 kW wind turbine, and a "little" Stirling engine for backup power.[7]

Kamen's secession is not legally recognized, but he still refers to the island as the "Kingdom of North Dumpling" and has established a constitution, a flag, a currency (the dumpling),[8] a national anthem, which is a parody of the song "America the Beautiful" written by Paul Lazarus,[3] and a navy consisting of a single amphibious vehicle. The people of North Dumpling are called "Dumplonians",[9] and Kamen is said to refer to himself as "Lord Dumpling" or "Lord Dumpling II". In addition to North Dumpling Lighthouse, the island has a replica of Stonehenge.[3][4] Despite still being a part of the United States, Kamen claimed he was able to leverage his personal relationship with then-president George H.W. Bush to sign an unofficial non-aggression pact.[10][11]

References
  1. National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (April 2006), Fisher's Island Sound (28th ed.) Graphic
  2. Lighthouse Friends history of N. Dumpling Island
  3. Ravo, Nick (April 22, 1988). "From L.I. Sound, A New Nation Asserts Itself". New York Times. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
  4. "How Dean Kamen's Magical Water Machine Could Save the World". Esquire. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
  5. Taub, Eric A. (January 26, 2009). "LEDs to the Rescue? Not So Fast". New York Times. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
  6. Taub, Eric A. (December 8, 2008). "Dean Kamen's 'LED Nation'". New York Times. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
  7. Harris, Mark (July 22, 2009). "Segway Inventor on future technology". The Guardian. London. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
  8. Utley, Garrick (July 3, 1998). "Dean Kamen's "Independent" North Dumpling Island" (PDF). NBC Learn. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 4, 2018. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  9. Christoffersen, John (November 22, 2008). "Segway inventor touts island as green 'nation'". Mystic: AZCentral.com.
  10. Inbar, Michael (October 21, 2010). "Welcome to secret island of an eccentric genius". Today. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  11. Lakhiani, Vishen (December 31, 2019). The Code of the Extraordinary Mind. Rodale. p. 37. ISBN 978-0593135822.
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