when I was a youngster, there were "shacks" all along the hill overlooking the lagoon as it was called then...don't recall when the name became piper's lagoon...they were used as summer homes by locals and visitors...the shacks on shack island wouldn't of been a place the japanese were interned as they were removed to the interior as far as i recall...i believe they were, as someone mentioned, built by local fishermen...and are supposedly still owned by their descendants...I understand that they are not allowed to be sold, but am not positive about that...there was at one time a lot of heated discussion about wether or not they should be torn down...hence the moratorium on selling them...as the owners died off maybe the shacks were to be torn down?...myself, i think they are an interesting piece of local history, and would hate to see them disappear.
oh...as a side note...also when I was a child, there used to be a series of homes built out over the water along stewart ave....they were torn down long ago, but I can recall going to visit a lady that lived in one of them and having tea there with my mother a few times. the place fascinated me because when the tide was in there was a constant wave noise...and because she had a front porch that ran the length of her rather tiny home that had a trap door in it with a ladder that went down to where she had a rowboat...does anyone else recall these homes?