Today the Matawan Creek is a slow-moving brackish body of water that almost anyone can throw a stone across. On July 12, 1916, it was the site of the shark attack on a young boy and one of the local citizens who tried to rescue him. Two days later, Dr. H.S. Cooley from nearby Keyport wrote, “Today I examined two of the victims, a man named Fisher who was trying to retrieve the body of another victim. A boy named Stillwell.