East Point Lighthouse

(And they make great day trips!)

By Wendy Greenberg

A gleaming white lighthouse, capped with red, towers over a strip of land at Sandy Hook, between Sandy Hook Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The lighthouse has been standing there since it was built in 1764.

“Think about that,” muses Carol Winkie, president of the New Jersey Lighthouse Society (NJLHS). “Sandy Hook Lighthouse, the oldest lighthouse in the United States, was built before the United States was a country.” Sandy Hook is the lone survivor of the Eastern Seaboard Colonial lighthouses.

The lighthouses of New Jersey that stand today are beacons of maritime history. It is a quirky history, and a fascinating one. The “ABCs” (Absecon, Barnegat, and Cape May) were designed by George G. Meade, a hero of the Battle of Gettysburg. Finn’s Point Rear Range Lighthouse was built in Buffalo, N.Y., shipped by railroad, and pulled on wagons by mules to Supawana Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in 1877. The Tinicum Rear Range Lighthouse sits in a football practice field in Paulsboro.

And, sadly, the original 1868 Tucker’s Island Lighthouse, a white tower with red trim, went into the sea in 1927, and soon after the entire island, formerly a resort, was wiped out. A replica stands today. more

New Jersey Coastal Fishing

By Taylor Smith

For a small, densely populated state, New Jersey provides a wealth of fresh water and salt water fishing opportunities. The Garden State is home to 93 freshwater species and more than 330 marine species.

Surf fishing at the Jersey Shore is the sport of catching fish while standing on the shoreline or wading into the surf. Surfcasting or beachcasting is done in saltwater and involves casting bait or a lure as far out as possible. The more general shore fishing can include casting from rock jetties, fishing piers, and sandy or rocky beaches. Many surfcasters time their activity to coincide with the nocturnal feeding habits of certain saltwater species, such as sharks.

Island Beach State Park is filled with knowledgeable and enthusiastic anglers. Located at Exit 82, the 10 miles of preserved barrier island is landscaped by naturally occurring sandbars. The majority of the park is open to the public. For a fee, visitors can even drive their SUV onto the beach. Anglers at Island Beach State Park commonly fish for bluefish, striped bass, and fluke. By beach or by boat, Shore Catch Guide Service (www.shorecatch.com) boat charters, beach guides, and offshore charters promise that they will to “bring the fish to you.” With a season that runs from early April through late fall, Shore Catch Guide Service can help you to plan your Atlantic fishing experience. According to its seasonal chart at www.shorecatch.com/season, “By mid-June, the outer beaches become thick with trophy migrating stripers while the back bays continue to produce stripers, large bluefish, and tide runner weakfish.” During the months of July and August, the waters surrounding Island Beach State Park are alive with bonito, skipjack tuna, false albacore, dolphin, sharks, and larger tuna varieties. To contact Shore Catch Guide Service, call (732) 528-1861. more

Winged burning bush, Euonymus alatus

The Impact of Invasive Species

By Taylor Smith

in·va·sive

Webster’s New World Dictionary defines “invasive” as “the onset or appearance of something harmful or troublesome, as a disease.”

A massive influx of invasive flora and fauna has negatively impacted huge swaths of our native ecosystem, disrupting plant, animal, and human function. In contrast, native plants help to sustain native wildlife like butterflies, birds, mammals, reptiles, beneficial insects, and other fauna.

The vision of Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space (FoHVOS) is to protect New Jersey’s natural lands with their native plants. Its focus is on eliminating threats posed by newly emerging invasive species before they become widespread pests. Created to do just that, the FoHVOS New Jersey Invasive Species Strike Team is currently working on a project to protect rare species throughout the municipality of Princeton. more

A plume of flame signals the liftoff of the Apollo 11 Saturn V space vehicle and astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins from Kennedy Space Center. (Photo by NASA)

Montclair’s Buzz Aldrin and the Apollo 11 Mission

By Donald H. Sanborn III

July 20 will mark the 50th anniversary of the day that Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Montclair, New Jersey, native Dr. Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. Despite the recent films First Man and Apollo 11; the character of Buzz Lightyear from Disney’s Toy Story series, named after Aldrin; and a commemorative coin launched by the U.S. Mint; some question the extent to which the milestone is remembered today.

“Knowledge of the moon landing has kind of receded into the past, and people are unaware that we were actually a very active space-faring nation back in the 1960s,” says William Murray, the planetarium technician for the New Jersey State Museum. The museum now presents “Many Inspired Steps,” a retrospective of the moon landing.

Jacob Brandt, a composer and lyricist who conceived the song cycle, 1969: The Second Man, remarks that “Aldrin was just as integral to that mission as Neil Armstrong. There were hundreds of thousands of people working to make the moon landing happen. But in our collective memory we think of Armstrong first, even though he stepped on the moon minutes before Aldrin did. We don’t often think of Aldrin.” more

Main building, Ellis Island

The Immigration Experience at Historic Ellis Island

by Taylor Smith | Photos courtesy of The National Park Service and Wikimedia Commons

More than 12 million immigrants passed through the U.S. immigration portal at New York’s Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954. These determined individuals — many of whom were escaping extreme poverty, famine, and persecution — often spent all of their savings on a single ticket, causing many families to become separated. Teenage children were left to cross the ocean alone, not knowing what was in store for them when they arrived in America, or whether they would every see their parents again.

This uncertainty did not dissipate after the ships sailed past the Statue of Liberty, a literal beacon of light, hope, and freedom to the arriving passengers. The inspection process at Ellis Island was another big hurdle to cross, and the health and confidence of the arriving immigrants — who often did not speak English and had eaten little and seldom bathed during their long journey — was not strong.

All arriving passengers were processed in the Registry Room where they were organized in pens similar to cattle or livestock. Public Health Service doctors poked and prodded as they asked the new arrivals to cough, stand up straight, and answer a few questions to assess their psychological state. Special attention was paid to individuals who appeared weak and off balance, struggling to carry their own luggage up the broad staircase to the Registry Room. Of primary concern were cholera, scalp and nail fungus, tuberculosis, epilepsy, trachoma, insanity, and other mental impairments. Trachoma, a contagious eye infection that can lead to blindness and death, was itself somewhat akin to a death sentence, sending afflicted patients back to their home country. During their examination, Ellis Island physicians used a hooked metal tool to literally flip a new arrival’s eyelid inside out. Excessive redness on the under-eyelid was taken as suspected trachoma. Cases of misdiagnosis were not uncommon.  more