By Nicholas Morehead Travelers riding South Ferry to Shelter Island have probably looked at it more times than they realize. It's that secluded, scenic inlet immediately to the northwest of the ferry landing. An oft-photographed osprey nest sits in the foreground. The historic manor house of the former Artemas Ward estate in Shorewood looms up the shoreline in the background. It has good tidal flushing, as evidenced by the clean, pristine marshes and delicate tidal wetlands. It abounds in wildlife, is thought to be a good shore-casting spot and is one of the Island's best spots to watch the sunset. And now the Clark family wants to give it something else -- a name. Quietly and with little fanfare, the Town Board will likely pass a resolution at its January 28 meeting officially naming that small body of water Mabel's Creek. The campaign to name the creek was championed by Mabel's two sons, South Ferry's Cliff and Bill. In an interview this week, they said all credit belonged to their late father, Captain William Y. Clark, who for years had it in mind to name the creek after Mabel as well. "She would never have stood for this while she was alive," Bill said this week. "For one, she was a strong person but she was a private person. You wouldn't find her up at Town Hall pounding on the desk. And another thing, she wasn't particularly fond of the name Mabel," he joked. "She wouldn't have stood for this but we think it's the right thing to do." Mabel Bales was born in 1913, one of seven brothers and sisters from Fitzgerald, Georgia. Her older brother Clayton found his way up to the Island from Georgia one summer and was working on the Island. Mabel took a trip from Georgia to visit her brother and that's when she met Captain Clark. The two began a correspondence that would lead to a courtship and marriage. For more than 30 years, she worked at South Ferry where, without pay, she managed the office and kept the books. "Those were lean days back then. Traffic was nothing like it is now," Bill said. "It was a never-ending job, seven days a week. There was always something to prepare for the next day." During her years on Shelter Island, Mabel was involved in the local PTA, Ladies Home Bureau and Girl Scouts. She volunteered as a secretary for the local chapter of the American Red Cross. She chauffeured her boys' Little League teams and helped coordinate their swimming programs. "She was involved in many things, and if you looked at them, they all had to do somehow with family," said Cliff. "There was very little she was involved with that didn't have to do with us. Her afternoon cup of coffee with friends, I think that was at least to get away from us for a while." Mabel died in 1987 but Bill and Cliff said her love and belief in family shines strong today, as evidenced by the fact that many from her side of the family still come to visit Shelter Island. One of her nephews and his family has a house here. One of Mabel's great nieces is getting married on the Island this summer -- they've asked Cliff to officiate at the wedding. South Ferry dedicated its vessel Southern Cross in her honor, etching her initials and a favorite psalm in the vessel's keel. Naming a geographic entity after someone is a bit more complicated than attaching someone's name to a boat. Shelli Clark, Mabel's granddaughter and a lawyer, was in charge of logistics. They entailed contacting all neighbors whose property is adjacent to the creek, informing them of the family's desire to name the creek after Mabel and highlighting a bit about her life and legacy. Once they contacted all the neighbors -- and did not receive any objections -- Shelli took her family's request to the Town Board, "and that's it," Ms. Clark said in a recent interview. With no local objections and no evident controversy, board members, after briefly discussing the proposal at their January 11 work session, appeared ready to pass a resolution making the naming official. After the naming is official, the board will send copies of the resolution to the Coast Guard so they can update their charts. They also will inform the Shelter Island Chamber of Commerce, so they can update the local Shelter Island map they put out. Mabel's Creek must also be reflected on local tax maps and, for that to happen, the county has to be brought into the loop, according to the town's Chief Assessor Al Hammond. "My involvement is merely a formality. I certainly don't have any say or jurisdiction over the matter," Mr. Hammond said last week. He will send a letter to the county Division of Real Property, which makes the tax maps for all the towns and villages in the county. "The letter would merely indicate the new name and if there's a town resolution or proclamation, we'd include a copy of that with the letter as well," Mr. Hammond said. The county issues new maps every year in order to reflect such changes, usually around late August or early September. "Our policy is that we need to get anything of this nature from the locality's assessor's office. That way, we know that everything is in order as far as the town is concerned," said Gary Simonson, deputy director of the Division of Real Property. The county requires documentation from an assessor's office as well as copies of any proclamation or resolution for record-keeping purposes -- "the date the name was changed, any reason for the name change, the date received, that sort of thing," Mr. Simonson said. It's not uncommon for the county to have to update its tax maps. New subdivisions happen all the time, often creating new roads that the maps must reflect. "But I talked to some of my guys in the mapping department, some of these guys have been there for more than 30 years, and nobody could remember ever giving a name to an existing body of water," Mr. Simonson said. Mr. Simonson said he knew of no protocol for his office to notify any state agencies or departments. He did say, however, that it was not uncommon for county and state parks or planning departments to borrow or lease his department's maps. For a name change to be officially recognized at the state level, the proponents -- in this case the Clark family -- must apply to the New York State Committee on Geographic Names, a subsidiary of the State Education Department. They require local and county approval as well as some other criteria, such as approval from the local historical society or town historian. If the State Committee on Geographic Names signs off, according to their Web site, they will help the applicants file for national recognition with the United States Committee on Geographic Names, a division of the United States Geological Survey. That committee meets quarterly to review and approve the applications that come before them. Kevin Duffy, deputy director of the New York State Department of Transportation's Office of Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure Coordination -- which has a keen interest in up-to-date state maps -- said his agency notifies interested parties once the name change is approved by those two geographic agencies. There is a plaque at the South Ferry offices commemorating the dedication of the Southern Cross to Mabel. The sentiments expressed in it would ring true today, her sons said. "She would certainly plead that we not dedicate Southern Cross to her, and then thank us for the thought," the plaque reads. "We hope she will forgive us for not being persuaded. She deserves this dedication too much."
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