Jones Beach State Park is a state park of the U.S. state of New York. It is in southern Nassau County, in the hamlet of Wantagh, on Jones Beach Island, a barrier island linked to Long Island by the Meadowbrook State Parkway, Wantagh State Parkway, and Ocean Parkway.
The park – 6.5mi in length – is renowned for its beaches (which, excepting the beach on Zachs Bay, face the open Atlantic Ocean) and furnishes one of the most popular summer recreational locations for the New York metropolitan area. It is the most popular and heavily visited beach on the East Coast, with an estimated six million visitors per year.
Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater, an outdoor arena in the park, is a popular musical and concert venue. The park also includes a 2mi long boardwalk. It once featured dining and catering facilities that were popular sites for private parties and weddings; these have been shut down.
Jones Beach is named after Major Thomas Jones, a major in the Queens County militia in the 1600s who established a whaling station on the outer beach near the site of the present park.