Squan Beach

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Squan Beach is the historic name of a barrier spit located on the Jersey Shore of the Atlantic Ocean in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States. Since the closing of Cranberry Inlet around 1812, [1] it has been joined physically to Island Beach, and is a major component of the Barnegat Peninsula.

Contents

Geography

Squan Beach is a barrier peninsula that separates the Atlantic Ocean from Barnegat Bay. It abuts the mainland at the north end, and joins Island Beach to the south. Due to the former shifting of the Manasquan Inlet, which at times had been as far north as Stockton Lake, the portion of Manasquan in Monmouth County lying east of Watson's Creek may be considered a truncated portion of Squan Beach.

It was described in 1834 as,

Squan Beach extends from Old Cranberry inlet, N, 10 miles to Manasquan inlet, dividing for part of that distance, Barnegat bay, from the Atlantic ocean. It no where exceeds half a mile in width [2]

An 1878 description of Squan Beach follows, viz,

Squan Beach, a peninsula, extends from Manasquan River to the former site of Cranberry Inlet. It lies nearly its whole length between the upper part of Barnegat bay and the Atlantic Ocean. It nowhere extends a half mile in width, and the distance named for its length is about twelve miles. It is, however, now continuous with Island Beach, the whole length of the peninsula to Barnegat Inlet being from twenty-three to twenty-four miles. About the year 1750 an inlet broke through this beach nearly opposite Tom's River, which seems to have had different names at different periods. It is most commonly known as Cranberry Inlet. This inlet was navigable for many years, and in Faden's map of New Jersey, 1777, it is called New Inlet, and is represented to be as wide as any other inlet on the coast except Great Egg Harbor. [3]

Communities

Communities on the peninsula include Point Pleasant Beach, Bay Head, Mantoloking, Lavallette, Normandy Beach, and Ortley Beach. Brick Township Beaches I, II, and III, and the Toms River Township communities of Dover Beaches North (Ocean Beach and Chadwick Beach), and Dover Beaches South are also located on the peninsula.

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Metedeconk River


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Barnegat Inlet

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Wardell's Beach is the historic name of a barrier spit located on the Jersey Shore of the Atlantic Ocean in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. It takes its name from Eliakim Wardell, an early owner, and his descendants. Since the 19th century it has been joined physically to Sandy Hook, and contains the boroughs of Monmouth Beach and Sea Bright.

Island Beach is a barrier spit located on the Jersey Shore of the Atlantic Ocean in Ocean County, New Jersey. Since the closing of Cranberry Inlet about 1812 (approximately at the boundary between Ortley Beach and Seaside Heights), it has been joined physically to Squan Beach, and is a major component of the Barnegat Peninsula.

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Two Mile Beach is a barrier island on the Jersey Shore in Cape May County, since 1922 connected to Five Mile Beach.

Cranberry Inlet was an inlet connecting Barnegat Bay with the Atlantic Ocean in Ocean County, New Jersey. It has been closed since 1812.

Brigantine Inlet is an inlet connecting Little Bay with the Atlantic Ocean in Atlantic County, New Jersey.

References

  1. ↑ State of New Jersey "Annual report of the State Geologist For the Year 1905" Part 1. Changes Along the New Jersey Coast, by Lewis M. Haupt, C. E.; p. 38
  2. ↑ Gordon, Thomas Francis (1834). A Gazetteer of the State of New Jersey - Thomas F. Gordon - Google Books . Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  3. ↑ Historical and Biographical Atlas of the New Jersey Coast, Woolman and Rose, Philadelphia, 1878

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