The Sutphin Playground is notable for its sculpture of an American mastodon, an extinct elephant-like animal, recalling a time in the 1850s when workers dredging the pond found the bones of an individual mastodon that lived in the area almost 10,000 years ago, just after the end of the last ice age.

The construction of John F. Kennedy International Airport and the JFK Expressway made the creek subterranean, depressed underground and diverted southeast.

Baisley Pond is located in the Jamaica Bay watershed of western Long Island, where the intersection of 130th Avenue and 150th Street would be.

[8] It was formed in the 18th century, when local farmers dammed three streams to power a grain mill.

[1][10] On April 6, 1858, while draining the lake for use as a reservoir, the remains of an American mastodon (similar to a mammoth) were discovered at the bottom of the pond.

In 1898, after Brooklyn became a borough of the City of New York, the pond was connected to New York's larger and more reliable upstate water system, and the old Brooklyn system, including Baisley Pond, was no longer used as a water source.

In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, the Parks Department under Robert Moses built additional recreational facilities with the help of the Works Progress Administration, including a boat landing, playgrounds, tennis courts, and baseball fields.

The "Southern Extension" of the park, located south of Rockaway Boulevard, remained undeveloped and neglected until 1984, when new sports facilities were built.