Camping on the Beach in Strathmere NJ

Have you ever heard of people camping on the beach in Strathmere or Whale Beach? Years ago it was allowed and people would stay from a week to the whole Summer season. I've seen mentioned in old 1920s fishing magazines, that many fishermen would camp on The Point in Strathmere in tents. Not just little pup tents, in large tents with wooden floors and multiple cots inside. They'd spend the day fishing on the beach or out in a boat, and come back to their tent to make their meals. Sometimes they would go to the nearby West Jersey Cottage where Gus Wittkamp and his family would serve the men meals and Gus would pass on good fishing information that he heard.


There was a community of tents on Whale Beach in the 1930s to 1950s. Georgian Hewett's daughter Maria sent me some photos of Georgian when she was a girl, visiting the tent that her grandfather built on Whale Beach every summer for several years. These photos show Georgian and her sisters, around 1950. Their grandmother was Grace Green from Vineland. Their grandfather built a wooden floor with large tents on it and what looks like temporary walls, right on the beach!











Here's a mention of the tent colony from the August 22nd, 1933 issue of The Courier News. A storm was coming, so people in the Whale Beach tent colony evacuated. Before the storm there were supposedly 70 tents set up. That's a lot of tents, I can't imagine how large of an area this would have been for 70 tents, maybe that was an exaggeration.
I've also found mentions of tent colonies or 'Tent Cities' in Wildwood, Cape May and some beaches north of us. All during the same time frame. I don't know at what point the tents were stopped. I would guess by the 1960s.






Several years ago, Susan Dennis Winters sent me the next 2 photos. They're from 1958 when 5 men from the US Navy camped out on The Point for several months as part of a LORAC Support Team. Their camp was in the sand dunes around the Coast Guard tower, which stood on the beach until the 1960s. The camp consisted of three big tents. One they slept in, one to eat, one for working on their project. The guys were apparently very popular among the young Strathmere ladies while they were stationed here.







Here is part of a story from the July 1922 Forrest & Stream Magazine. The author and his friend went to Strathmere to stay with some fishing buddies. The friends had built a large wooden floor tent on The Point for the Summer season.





This is a tragic story that I found in an August 16th 1934 issue of the Evening Courier. 2 people staying in the 'Tent Colony' on Whale Beach were killed when lightening struck their tent.







Here are a few photos from the 1910s that appear to have tents set up.
In the foreground on the bay and in the background on the beach.











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