Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Meroke Preserve: A Name in the Wetlands

Meroke Preserve carries a Native regional name into a protected wetland landscape along Newbridge Creek in Bellmore. Meroke remains part of the everyday geography of the South Shore. Connecting the name with a protected creek landscape invites people to learn its history while caring for the place that now carries it. Meroke Preserve, also listed by Nassau County as Merokee Preserve, protects about 25 acres of woods and wetlands between Sunrise Highway and Merrick Road. Newbridge Creek divides into two channels through the preserve. 1 Wooded trail at Meroke Preserve. Photograph © Jeremy Dennis, September 12, 2026. Meroke is one of the historical forms of the Merrick name . Today it names a quiet stretch of woods and wetlands along Newbridge Creek in Bellmore. 2 Robert S. Grumet includes the preserve in the Merrick entry of his place-name history, Beyond Manhattan . 2 A regional name with...