200 Plus
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•February 4, 2026
Jersey’s Governor Keeps Delicate Balance
During the winter of 1776, as thousands of colonists were reading and being influenced by the words written in “Common Sense,” choices were being made. Nowhere was this more evident than in the Royal…
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•January 28, 2026
Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense’ Goes Viral
Today in the world of instant communication, a post can go viral and reach millions of people within hours. But in the 18th century, one post went what was viral for the times, and it affected the…
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•January 21, 2026
Propaganda Stirs Up Colonists
The ideas put forth by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence weren’t new. Six months before in a local Cumberland County newspaper, The Plain Dealer, the editor stated the ideas that…
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•January 14, 2026
Is It Rebellion or Revolution?
When the first SandPaper went to press in July 1976, my column dealt with the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. In the issues that followed, I was able to deal with the events of…
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•January 7, 2026
How Hard Did You Study?
Well, 2025 is finally over! The Eagles are in the playoffs and luckily the Giants and Jets still call themselves New York. But before we start thinking about the new year there is some unfinished…
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•December 17, 2025
How Much Do You Remember?
As the days of December grow shorter, all minds turn to the NFL playoffs and who made the final 12 in college football. But there are two other major events that take place during the month: The…
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•December 10, 2025
Digging Up History of Shore Privateers
This is the third and final part in a series.
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•December 4, 2025
The Colonists Get a Navy – of Sorts
During the first months of the American rebellion, the rebel focus was upon turning the local militia surrounding Boston into a trained army. The Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia paid…
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•November 26, 2025
East and West Jersey: Civil War?
Today as we look back on the events leading up to American independence, it’s easy to say which side you would have been on. Winning has a way of doing that. But if you were alive in the fall of…
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•November 12, 2025
Fighter Planes’ Recovery Thwarted
A May Speakeasy article in The SandPaper by Garrett Filemyr about a little-known 1945 mass air crash in Ocean County started a deep dive into the facts. After coming up short searching Wikipedia and…
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•November 6, 2025
Digging Into WWII Fog Disaster
The May 26 issue of The SandPaper ran a Speakeasy column by Garrett Filemyr that described a tragic aviation disaster that took place near Seven Bridges Road in Tuckerton in March 1945. A quick look…
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•October 29, 2025
Gen. Gage’s Recruitment Effort Foiled
In October 1775, a drama played out at the Jersey Shore that helped to show the peculiar situation that existed before the colonies declared their independence.
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•October 22, 2025
British General Goes After Recruits
There are many legends of the Jersey Shore that are difficult to prove, and one has always been that a ship load of British Redcoats wrecked on the coast early in the American Revolution alarming the…
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•October 15, 2025
Thomas Paine Stirs the Pot
Today in the age of the internet they are called influencers, trying to sway the public on everything from buying clothes and cosmetics to supporting political candidates. In the 1770s there was a…
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•October 8, 2025
King George Rejects Olive Branch
In June 1775, the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, consolidated the local New England militia besieging Boston into the Continental Army and appointed George Washington to…
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•September 25, 2025
Widow Fights the US Navy
The crash of the airship USS Shenandoah in September 1925 rocked Ocean County, its home base. It was reported it had made 40 children orphans.
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•September 17, 2025
Looters Swarm ‘Shenandoah’ Crash Site
On Sept. 2, 1925, the airship USS Shenandoah lifted off from its base at Lakehurst, N.J. on a publicity flight designed to win over public support for the lighter-than-air program. The next day, the…
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•September 10, 2025
‘Shenandoah’ Flight Ends in Disaster
As the summer of 1925 began, the Navy Department decided to keep the American-built airship USS Shenandoah on the East Coast because of the fear of Midwest thunderstorms. But as the summer ended…
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•September 3, 2025
‘Shenandoah’ Sent on Perilous Mission
During the early part of the summer of 1925, it was announced that the USS Shenandoah would not attempt any flights to the Midwest because of the dangers created by violent thunderstorms. Because of…
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•August 27, 2025
Spectacular Death of the ‘Corvallis’
In June 1925, a movie company purchased the 277-foot war surplus freighter Corvallis for the purpose of blowing it up. The movie plot called for the ship to be re-named the Mandalay and to explode at…
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•August 20, 2025
Unusual Shipwreck Off Surf City
Mentioned in the shipwreck database of the New Jersey Maritime Museum in Beach Haven is the wreck site 48 miles east of Surf City, N.J. of the screw steamer Corvallis, sunk in June 1925.
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•August 13, 2025
‘J.M. Hilton’ Wreck Hits the News
In July 1925, Capt. Curtis Hilton of the J.M. Hilton encountered dense fog off the Jersey coast. The captain decided to wait out the weather and anchored his ship close to the Barnegat Lighthouse in…
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•August 6, 2025
Congested Shoreline Leads to Mystery
Standing on the beaches of Long Beach Island today, it’s a rare sight to see a large ship close to shore. But in the age before radar and GPS navigation, it was common.
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•July 30, 2025
Testing ‘Shenandoah’ for War
As the summer of 1925 began, the United States possessed two airships, each over two football fields in length. The German-built Los Angeles was designed to show the commercial use for the giant…
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•July 23, 2025
USS Shenandoah Shifts Roles
During the summer of 1925, the United States possessed two giant airships. The USS Shenandoah was designed to be a weapon of war, while the USS Los Angeles was to be a trailblazer for promoting the…
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•July 16, 2025
Rival Airships Fight for Helium
During the summer of 1925, the U.S. possessed two of the world’s largest and most modern airships. Unfortunately, a rivalry would be created between them that would lead to the destruction of one…
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•July 9, 2025
The Last English 4th of July
The 4th of July, 1775 was the final one that Americans called themselves Englishmen, but at the time few had any idea what the next 12 months would hold.
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•July 2, 2025
British Suffer Costly Victory
In June 1775, the first major battle of the American War for Independence was fought at Bunker Hill outside Boston. Here the disorganized local militia, outnumbered, short of gunpowder and without…
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•June 25, 2025
British Move in on Bunker’s Hill
Today we follow wars with minute-by-minute or day-by-day updates. It’s hard for us to think it wasn’t always this way.
