![]() ![]() Both parks still have the concrete fire control towers. The surrounding land became part of the Army’s defense system during World War II when Fort Miles occupied the present day Cape Henlopen State Park. ![]() The Indian River Life-Saving Station, restored to its 1905 appearance and listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is now a museum and the park visitors’ center. In 1915, the service merged with the U.S. At four-hour intervals, two men walked in opposite directions toward the nearest station to patrol for wrecks. There were stations in Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, Bethany Beach and Fenwick Island. Surfmen slept in a dormitory and shared cooking duties. ![]() The Indian River Life-Saving Station and the Cape Henlopen Life-Saving Station opened in 1876. Seaman feared this desolate section for the treacherous shoals, the pirates and the “moon cussers,” thieves who enticed ships to wreck by masquerading as a lighthouse or another ship. In 1939, two jetties were built to stabilize the inlet, which had narrowed to the point that it affected commerce.Īsk The Top Lawyer: Frederick Freibott Q&A Topic: Personal Injury The first bridge was not built until 1934. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the shifting shoreline made the land between Dewey Beach and the inlet a challenge to traverse. It’s a much bigger deal than just a vacation destination.” A shifting past “I’ve talked to people who’ve been coming here for generations,” Hall says. When people want to get back to nature, he says, this is the place to do it. There is animal wildlife on the park’s Burton Island Nature Preserve and Thompson Island Preserve, and a host of aquatic life in surrounding waterways. The Atlantic Ocean, the Rehoboth Bay and the Indian River Bay lap hungrily at the land. The 2,825-acre park occupies a six-mile strip that in some spots is less than a half mile wide. “It has always been this nexus between history and geography,” says Jim Hall, chief of cultural resources for the Delaware Division of Parks and Recreation. Both are important parts of the legacy of Delaware Seashore State Park, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer. It’s not far from the Indian River Life-Saving Station, built in 1876 to save shipwreck survivors. Even today, coins occasionally pop up on the beach north of the Indian River Inlet, now known as Coin Beach. ![]()
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