 Primarily a farming hamlet, the westernmost part of the Greenwich Peninsula - fronting on the Gulf of St. Lawrence and part of Prince Edward Island National Park - is an extensive sand dune field covering dozens of hectares, as well as several sand beaches.Mostly used by local residents until the 1970s, the Greenwich peninsula was largely unknown to tourists as it did not have good roads and was not near major attractions.This changed after a New York City real estate developer purchased several abandoned farms and part of the dune field in the area during the 1980s and proposed a major golf course and exclusive resort on the property, creating a stir in publicity and causing an outcry among Islanders who feared loss of access to the area, and by environmentalists, who feared irreparable damage to the ecosystem.