Southold Town occupies the extreme north eastern tip of Long Island on what has been termed variously the North Fork, the North Fluke and the North Branch. Probably the best accepted of these terms being North Fork.
     The connected length of the town from Laurel on the west to Orient Point on the east is about 22 miles. From there eastward its domain extends across the waters to include the "Islands of the Sea" which like giant's stepping stones, rise above Long Island, Fishers Island and Block Island Sounds. This chain - Plum Island, "Old Silas" (a huge rock rearmg above low water) Great Gull, with its fort, Little Gull, with its Lighthouse and Fishers Island give Southold Town a total extreme length of about 42 miles.
     Southold vies with Easthampton Town for the distinction of being known as the Sunrise Town of New York State inasmuch as the eastern-most tip of Fishers Island by magnetic north is east of Montauk Point while by true north the reverse is true.
     The shore front of 157.5 miles divide with frontage on Peconic and Gardiners Bays of 41.5 miles: on Long Island, Fishers Island and Block Island Sounds 53.5 miles and the balance of 62.5 miles on creeks and inlets.
     Nearly half, or 15,000 acres of the total acreage of 34,050 is under cultivation, about 6600 acres is wooded. The islands comprise about 3550 acres. Built up areas, golf courses, meadows, beaches, lakes, ponds and the like take up about 8900 acres.
     Concerning its topography, Southold Town is gently rolling on the north and quite level otherwise. The Long Island Sound bluffs rise to a high point of 178 feet above sea level, the average height being about 40 feet. The land slopes down rather abruptly from these bluffs and levels off to sea level on the Peconic and Gardiners Bay shores at the south, a distance of from one to five miles. Many creeks indent the bay shores and from the Sound bluffs on the north are usually found areas of lower land draining into them. Salt water meadows surround these creeks. There are several interesting fresh water lakes.
At two points on the sound and two on the bay, inlets indent the land. Mattituck Inlet forms the only real harbor of refuge on the Long Island Sound coast from Port Jefferson to Plum Gut. This inlet opens into Mattituck Creek, which extends about two miles inland to Mattituck village. Goldsmith Inlet on the sound at Peconic also offers possibilities of development as a harbor. Mill Creek and Dam Pond extend from the bay almost to the sound. But for a narrow strip of land and beach at these points Orient would be one island and East Marion and Greenport another island. Viewing this situation it is easy to surmise how the islands to the east were formed. In fact people still living but a few years ago, told of walking from Orient Point to Plum Island by the use of planks where now the channel is from 54 to 180 feet in depth and nearly a mile in width.
    Nature has been kind to Southold Town. She has endowed it with fertile soil, equable climate, and beautiful harbors. She has witheld her hand from striking this peninsula with the terrifying swift blows of tornados, hurricanes, tidal waves and earthquakes with which she wreaks her vengeance upon some parts of the earth. Even summer storms more often than not, follow the water of Sound and Bay out to sea, and leave unacathed this beautiful country side. Tempered by these bodies of salt water, winters are usually mild and summers comfortingly cool.
    With a boat or a golf stick, perhaps a dog and a gun; in a duck blind on a windy morning, on horse back along the Sound bluffs, a swim in sparkling waters or just a stroll in a beautiful garden, life here is pleasant and the average span is long.