Washington Spy Ring National Historic Trail Designation Act
Officially: “Washington Spy Ring National Historic Trail Designation Act” Read the full text
What it does
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1Short title
This section would let the Act be called the 'Washington Spy Ring National Historic Trail Designation Act.'
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1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Washington Spy Ring National Historic Trail Designation Act .
2Findings
This section states Congress's findings that the Culper Spy Ring was a group of American Revolutionaries who gathered intelligence on British troop movements and fortifications in Manhattan, Long Island, and elsewhere for General George Washington. It credits the Culper Spy Ring with uncovering Benedict Arnold's plan to surrender West Point to the British and with saving the Franco-American alliance by uncovering plans to ambush the French army in Rhode Island. It identifies key locations used by the ring: Raynham Hall in Oyster Bay, New York, home of intelligence operative Robert Townsend; the Arsenal (also called the Job Sammis House) in Huntington, New York, which stored gunpowder during the British occupation of Long Island and the town of Huntington; the Brewster House, a tavern in Setauket, New York, owned by the Brewster family and used to spy on British officers and pass information to Washington across the Long Island Sound; and, generally, the byways and highways connecting these sites.
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2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) The Culper Spy Ring was a group of American Revolutionaries who gathered intelligence on British troop movements and fortifications in Manhattan, Long Island, and elsewhere for General George Washington. (2) The Culper Spy Ring is credited with uncovering Benedict Arnold’s conspiracy to surrender West Point to the British and saving the Franco-American alliance by uncovering plans to ambush the French army in Rhode Island. (3) Key locations used by the Culper Spy Ring include— (A) Raynham Hall in Oyster Bay, New York, the home of intelligence operative Robert Townsend; (B) the Arsenal (also known as the Job Sammis House) in Huntington, New York, which was used to store gunpowder during the British occupation of Long Island and the town of Huntington; (C) the Brewster House, a tavern in Setauket, New York, owned by the Brewster family and used to spy on British officers and transfer information to General Washington across the Long Island Sound; and (D) generally, the byways and highways connecting these sites.
3Designation of the Washington Spy Ring National Historic Trail
This section would amend the National Trails System Act. It would renumber the existing paragraph about the Butterfield Overland National Historic Trail from paragraph (31) to paragraph (32), and add a new paragraph (33) designating the Washington Spy Ring National Historic Trail. The new trail would cover about 50 miles of village, town, and city streets and New York Route 25A, running from Great Neck, New York, along Long Island's North Shore, through Nassau and Suffolk Counties, to Port Jefferson, New York, following the route shown on a map titled 'Proposed Washington Spy Ring National Historic Trail Extent and Key Locations,' numbered NERO 962/198100 and dated November 2025. That map would be kept on file and available for public inspection in the appropriate office of the Secretary of the Interior. The trail would be administered by the North Shore Promotion Alliance, an organization described in section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and exempt from tax under section 501(a) of that Code, working in cooperation with the Secretary of the Interior.
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3. Designation of the Washington Spy Ring National Historic Trail Section 5(a) of the National Trails System Act ( 16 U.S.C. 1244(a) ) is amended— (1) by redesignating the second paragraph (31) (relating to Butterfield Overland National Historic Trail) as paragraph (32); and (2) by adding at the end the following: (33) Washington Spy Ring National Historic Trail (A) In general The Washington Spy Ring National Historic Trail, a trail of approximately 50 miles of village, town, and city streets and New York Route 25A, from Great Neck, New York, along Long Island’s North Shore, through Nassau and Suffolk Counties, to Port Jefferson, New York, following the route generally depicted on the map titled Proposed Washington Spy Ring National Historic Trail Extent and Key Locations , numbered NERO 962/198100, and dated November 2025. (B) Availability of map The map described in subparagraph (A) shall be on file and available for public inspection in the appropriate office of the Secretary of the Interior. (C) Administration In cooperation with the Secretary of the Interior, the Washington Spy Ring National Historic Trail designated by this paragraph shall be administered by the North Shore Promotion Alliance, an organization described in section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and exempt from taxation under section 501(a) of such Code. .
Where it is
In the House.