200 Plus
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•January 11, 2023
Did You Pass the Test?
The SandPaper vacation is over, although the weather is more like April then January. It’s time to get back to work, which means you get a chance to grade your 200 Plus end-of-year exam.
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•December 21, 2022
Were You Paying Attention?
The shortest day of the year brings The SandPaper’s vacation, until the sun begins to return in January. As part of this annual ritual, this column has its end of year trivia contest. Speed here…
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•December 14, 2022
Tuckerton Rescues New York Christmas
Five years ago, I discovered a little-known Jersey Shore Christmas story. Today, after the events which have taken place since then, it might help to retell a story of the true holiday spirit.
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•December 7, 2022
Mormon Presence in Ocean County Fades
The story of the early Mormon influence in Ocean County was affected by several outside factors.
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•November 30, 2022
Hostility Sends Most Mormons West
Following the murder of the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith by a Nauvoo, Ill. mob in 1844, the church leadership was thrown into turmoil.
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•November 23, 2022
Mormons Find Converts in the Pines
In the 1820s, Joseph Smith at Palmyra, N.Y. related several revelations that led to the writing of the Book of Mormon and the founding of a new religion, the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day…
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•November 16, 2022
Mormons Came Early to Ocean County
One of the advantages of writing a weekly column on history is that it affords you the luxury of taking a subject that might have been only a footnote in some narrative and delve into it in depth.…
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•November 9, 2022
‘Butterfly’: From Spray Beach to La Scala
The story of the famous opera “Madame Butterfly” started in Spray Beach on Long Beach Island, where long-time summer resident John Luther Long, a Philadelphia lawyer, took a story told to him by his…
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•November 2, 2022
‘Butterfly’ Gains National Notice
If you ask the average person to name five great operas, chances are “Madame Butterfly” would be on the list. If you then told them there was a direct link between the famous opera and a house…
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•October 26, 2022
Spray Beach Births Tale of Japan
I recently received an email that Surflight Theatre in Beach Haven is going to perform Puccini’s opera “Madame Butterfly.” My interest was piqued by the information that the opera was based on a…
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•October 19, 2022
Old Barney Loses Its Champions
In November 1922, Barnegat Lighthouse faced a new threat to its existence. It wasn’t from a storm with battering waves, but from the loss of support in Washington, D.C.
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•October 12, 2022
Fight Against Oil Pollution 100 Years Old
When Frank Appleby was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1920, he and New Jersey U.S. Sen. Joseph Frelinghuysen became the champions in Washington, D.C. who were leading a fight to save…
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•October 5, 2022
100 Years Later, Barney Still Shines
As you stand at the base of Barnegat Lighthouse and watch workers remove the scaffolding to expose the refurbished historic icon, you cannot help but wonder what might have been.
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•September 29, 2022
Vying for Air Supremacy
In the summer of 1922, America was in the midst of a historic transformation. The nation was still recovering from the horrors of World War I and the Spanish flu pandemic that followed. In the…
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•September 21, 2022
Celestial Visitor Crashes the Scene
In the spring of 1922, an event took place that put Ocean County on the front pages of most of the nation’s newspapers.
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•September 14, 2022
‘Pine Rats’ and the Jersey Devil
In searching for the origins of the Jersey Devil legend, evidence seems to show the connection of the Leeds family to the supernatural had its roots in the humorous writings of Ben Franklin in Poor…
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•September 7, 2022
Ben Franklin and the Jersey Devil
When we think about legendary monsters, names like Abominable Snowman, Sasquatch and Loch Ness monster jump to mind, but these stories usually deal with sightings and not where the creature came from.
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•September 1, 2022
Cedar Bridge Tavern Central to History
Longtime readers of 200 Plus know the Cedar Bridge Tavern has been of special interest. Since it was first mentioned in 1982 as a site of a Revolutionary War skirmish, I have followed its…
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•August 24, 2022
Sharks Aren’t Always the Bad Guys
Stories about shark attacks always make good reading, but those about sharks being attacked seem to be relatively rare. One of the earliest was reported from just south of Beach Haven by the…
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•August 17, 2022
This Time the Shark’s the Victim
Many modern environmentalists accuse the movie “Jaws” of triggering an assault on sharks that has severely reduced their numbers in many parts of the world. Inspired in part by the famous Jersey…
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•August 10, 2022
Gruesome Discovery Explained?
During the summer of 1913, almost three years before the famous shark attacks along the Jersey Shore, the nation was shocked when the Asbury Park Press broke a story on Aug. 25.
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•August 3, 2022
‘Man-Eater’ Sharks Reported at Shore
Anyone who has watched the movie “Jaws” remembers the connection to the Jersey Shore shark attacks that began at Beach Haven in July 1916. Many incidents in the movie can be linked to the facts of…
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•July 27, 2022
Real Treasure at Last?
Over the last couple of weeks, this column has followed the search for treasure on Long Beach Island, from finding coins on the beach to a mysterious tale of digging up a pirate treasure and…
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•July 25, 2022
Seeking Treasure on LBI
Today, if you walk along a deserted Long Beach Island beach at dawn or dusk, you might witness a strange sight: a person walking parallel to the ocean, looking down and waving a stick back and forth…
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•July 20, 2022
The Lure of Pirate Treasure
Most of the romantic history of Long Beach Island can be traced back to George B. Somerville’s 1914 book, Lure of Long Beach. Some of the most often repeated tales dealt with pirates and lost…
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•July 6, 2022
All Eyes Turn to Lakehurst
With the coming of summer 1922, the world’s largest hangar sat empty and unused at Lakehurst, N.J. It had been constructed the year before, anticipating the arrival of the ZR- 2, which had been…
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•June 29, 2022
Bringing the ZR-1 to Lakehurst
Sitting in the middle of the New Jersey Pinelands as 1922 began, one of the world’s largest buildings, Hangar No. 1 at Lakehurst, sat empty and unused. The site had been slated to become the center…
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•June 22, 2022
Last-Ditch Effort for Inlet Bridge
Most students of American history know that in October 1929 the stock market crashed, helping to lead America into a depression that would change it forever. But in September of that year it still…
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•June 15, 2022
Seaboard Boulevard More Than a Dream?
Long Beach Island lagged behind other Jersey Shore resorts in development. Asbury Park to the north and Atlantic City to the south had long been connected to the major East Coast cities. The boom…
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•June 8, 2022
Grand Plans for Shore Development
One hundred years ago, Long Beach Island was at a crossroads. The results of choices made during the Roaring 20s would affect life on the Island for the next century.
