200 Plus
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•March 27, 2024
Debate Over Power Nothing New
Over the past several years I have watched with interest the ongoing debate in The SandPaper editorial section over offshore windmills. Something in the debate triggered a vague memory; the story…
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•March 13, 2024
‘Norse Variant’ Lost at Sea
During March 1973, the Jersey Shore had suffered a near miss, as a spring nor’easter traveled north parallel to the East Coast but remained just offshore. What few knew at the time was that two…
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•March 6, 2024
About That Other March Storm …
If you mention “March Storm” to most longtime Ocean County residents, you get stories of 1962, of bay meeting ocean, a beached destroyer, dangerous rescues and washed-away houses. But there was…
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•February 28, 2024
Lighthouse or Light Ship? Both
As March 1924 began, Barnegat Lighthouse was about to play host to a delegation that contained the one man who was supposed to decide its fate.
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•February 21, 2024
Final Decision in One Man’s Hands
At the base of Barnegat Lighthouse there is a bust of its designer, Gen. George G. Meade. Few people realize there wouldn’t be a lighthouse or monument if not for the decision of one man, Gen.…
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•February 14, 2024
Bitter Battle to Save ‘Barney’ Continues
Walking around Barnegat Lighthouse today cannot give you a picture of what it was like 100 years ago. If you walk around the base of the lighthouse, you realize how close Barnegat Inlet has eroded…
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•February 7, 2024
Barnegat Lighthouse Still in Peril
For anyone familiar with Long Beach Island or the Jersey Shore in general, Barnegat Lighthouse is part of the culture. Today if this symbol were threatened by man or nature, we would expect the…
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•January 31, 2024
Incredible Survival of ‘USS Shenandoah’
In January 1924 in preparation for a polar expedition, the dirigible USS Shenandoah was moored to its 160-foot-tall mast for a series of tests to see if she could withstand a violent storm. As…
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•January 24, 2024
Cast Adrift in the Storm
During January 1924, a strong nor’easter was battering the Jersey Shore. At Lakehurst, the 680-foot-long dirigible Shenandoah was anchored to its almost 200-foot-high mooring tower like a giant…
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•January 17, 2024
How Safe Is Dirigible Flight?
With the christening of the ZR-1 with the name Shenandoah at Lakehurst in the fall of 1923, the nation’s love affair with the American-made dirigible began. As the airship made its early flights…
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•January 10, 2024
Are You a True History Buff?
The annual two-week vacation for those who produce The SandPaper and the 200 Plus history column is over. After basking in the warmest Christmas and New Year’s in recent memory, it’s back to work…
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•December 20, 2023
Time to Crack the Books
With the end of the calendar year, the SandPaper staff is given two weeks to rejuvenate and regroup. But faithful readers of the column 200 Plus are not given that break because that time is to be…
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•December 13, 2023
Lighthouse Fight Goes to Washington
As Christmas of 1923 approached, the defenders of Barnegat Lighthouse were hoping for a miracle. While Congress had allocated $100,000 to protect the lighthouse from the encroaching tides, a…
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•December 6, 2023
Lighthouse Fight Goes to the Wire
One hundred years ago this month, Barnegat Lighthouse faced the greatest threat to its existence since its lighting before the Civil War. The threat wasn’t from a nor’easter or even a hurricane; it…
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•November 29, 2023
Bureaucrat Blocks Lighthouse Rescue
The story of how Barnegat Lighthouse went from being a major beacon for East Coast mariners to New Jersey’s smallest state park is one of backroom politics complete with heroes and villains.
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•November 22, 2023
LBI Isolated in the 1930s
Today on Long Beach Island we are part of the modern world. We have access to all the marvels of Wi-Fi, cable, cellphones and the services provided by progressive government. But not long ago, a trip…
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•November 15, 2023
Slippery Slope to Safety
Sometimes as I do research for a series I come across an unrelated but interesting article that gets me to thinking. That’s what happened as the series on detective Ellis Parker was drawing to a…
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•November 8, 2023
And Now the End of the Story …
Last week’s column on the 1930 trial of Hattie Evans for the murder of her husband and a friend in a Lakehurst apartment ended with a guilty verdict for her and her lover, the actual shooter in the…
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•November 1, 2023
The Verdict: Guilty or Not?
In June 1930, the nation’s newspapers descended upon the Ocean County courthouse to cover a sensational murder trial.
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•October 25, 2023
Marine’s Testimony Tells the Tale
In May 1930, two sailors were found dead in a Lakehurst, N.J. apartment from a beating and gunshot wounds. At first the widow of one of them, Hattie Evans, told a story of a drunken battle leading to…
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•October 18, 2023
Bullets and Casings Don’t Add Up
In May 1930, two sailors were found dead in a Lakehurst apartment by Hattie Evans, the wife of one of the men. At first it was termed a murder suicide, but Ocean County Prosecutor James Davis turned…
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•October 11, 2023
New Mystery Comes to Lakehurst
It was the spring of 1930. The effects of the great stock market crash the year before were just filtering down to the common man.
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•October 4, 2023
Killer Brought to Justice
In August 1922, Ocean County experienced what would become one of its most famous murder cases.
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•September 27, 2023
Widow’s Claims Don’t Match Evidence
By the summer of 1922, Burlington County Detective Ellis Parker was one of the best known in the country. His ties to the Jersey Shore were strong, having been married in the Manahawkin Methodist…
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•September 20, 2023
Widow’s Story Doesn’t Add Up
During the summer of 1922, Burlington County detective Ellis Parker was gaining national attention as he prepared for the trial on the murder of a well-known circus owner at the hands of his wife and…
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•September 13, 2023
What Will the Verdict Be?
One of the cases that catapulted Burlington County detective Ellis Parker to national fame as the Sherlock Holmes of the Pines was the murder of circus owner John Brunen, as he sat reading his…
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•September 6, 2023
Explosive Testimony Heard in Murder Trial
During 1922, Ellis Parker, the famous Burlington County detective, was repeatedly in the national spotlight as he was instrumental in solving three highly publicized murder cases. In December of that…
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•August 23, 2023
Ellis Parker’s Specialty: Murder
Ellis Parker was born in 1870 and became Burlington County’s chief of detectives in 1897. Eventually he would become one of the most famous law enforcement officers in the entire country; his…
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•August 17, 2023
Horse Theft Leads to Career
During the first quarter of the 20th century, Ellis Parker was one of the most famous residents of the Jersey Pines. The subject of books and magazine articles on both sides of the Atlantic, he was…
