Orient

Orient, a seaside village, sits on sheltered Orient Harbor, a few miles west of the North Fork's easternmost tip. Beyond the village—jutting into the rough waters of Plum Gut, where Long Island Sound meets the Atlantic Ocean—is Orient Point, a wild, rocky spit that can be reached on foot after Route 25 ends. Corchaug Indians inhabited the area originally; in 1661 six English families settled here and called the land Oysterponds, a reference to the rich supply of shellfish. Orient village is still very much a rural hamlet, with well-tended old homes surrounded by farmland and wetlands.