The American frontier did not just consist of a prairie--it alsoincluded marshes and windswept sand dunes. When the earliestsettlers arrived at Rockaway Beach on steamships in the mid-1800s, it was a narrow strip of land pocked with ponds and covered with dunes. Within 30 years, the community had grown into a wildly popular resort served by a thriving rail line. Amusement parks, hotels, taverns, and dance halls abounded, as did bungalow courts and open-air tent colonies. In the 1960s, the area was disrupted by urban development efforts and transportation infrastructure had declined. Today,...