Although nothing official has been announced, it is learned on good authority that U.S. Army engineers have been making a survey of certain portions of Gay Head and Cuttyhunk within the past week, with a view to establishing suitable locations for fortifications should they be needed. The location favoried in Gay Head is the land lying between the lighthouse and the Vanderhoop estate, opposite the drive. This land is owned by the county, and is the site visited annually by thousands of people who go to Gay Head to see the cliffs.
 
What the intention of the War Department may be is not known. That nothing is expected to materialize for some time is indicated by the fact that the county commissioners have not yet been approached on the subject. From this circumstances, it is believed that the survey has been made only as a provision against some emergency which may or may not materialize.