Dr. Norene Moskalski
Keyword
  • Home
  • Contact Norene
  • Ecology Blog
  • Links
  • Media Room
  • Nocturne Reviews
  • Nocturne Excerpts
  • CATS

Big Stone Beach on the Delaware Bay

8/4/2012

57 Comments

 

The Mysterious Big Stone Beach, Delaware, Located on the Delaware Bay

Picture
Delaware Bay Beach
Photographing the lovely beaches lining the western shore of the Delaware Bay would take you to unique locations: Woodland Beach, Port Mahon Beach, Pickering Beach, Bombay Hook Beach, Prime Hook Beach, Kitts Hummock Beach, North and South Bowers Beaches, Slaughter Beach, Roosevelt Beach, and Lewes Beach, to name a few sites. Another beach bears a descriptive name and a mystery about how it received its name--Big Stone Beach.  

Big Stone Beach's name would lead us to believe there must be large rock formations on the beach like on the West Coast of the United States. The coastal zone along the Delaware Bay, however, does not have any steep rock formations. Rather, it is made up of low lying marshes that often lead to sandy beaches. My curiosity piqued, I set out to take photos of this beach and its unique rock structures.  

As I drove along Big Stone Beach Road, I passed through two and a half miles of beautiful forests and low marshlands inhabited by a variety of songbirds and shorebirds. A half mile from the beach, the freshwater marshes lapped lazily at the grassy edges of the road, and in the distance, I could see a tall black structure that reminded me of a fire watch tower. A few cottages lined the bay, but I didn't see any inhabitants or people on the beach.

Big Stone Beach is a very quiet beach, and in the vicinity of its entrance road, there are no large natural rock formations or manmade structures composed of stone. Could the name have originated from a local Native American word describing the sizes of stones on the beach or the size of the beach itself?

The military history of the beach and the black tower dates back to the end of WWI when a commissioned fort, Fort Saulsbury, was built to protect the eastern shore. During WWII, the United States used the fort to house prisoners of war and the staff who guarded them. Was the name of the beach related to a military maneuver?

Picture
Entrance Road to Big Stone Beach
Picture
Marshes on the North Side of the Entrance Road
Picture
Marshes on the South Side of the Entrance Road
Picture
Close-up View of the Tower at Big Stone Beach
Picture
From a Distance, What Appears to Be Tree Stumps on the Beach

Picture
Close-up View of the Stumps Lining the Beach
Picture
Roiling Charcoal Sea Foam on the Beach
The tower in the photos was part of the Fort Saulsbury defenses that were used in WWII as observation towers and as a gun battery. In May 1941, the 261st Coast Artillery Battery B was assigned to Fort Saulsbury for the purposes of coastal defense. They watched the coast line from three steel fire control observation towers that were built at Stone Beach, Mispillion Lighthouse and Fowler's Beach. Only the Big Stone Beach tower remains, along with the mystery of how this unique location received its name. If you know the answer to this question, please add your information to the Comments section below.

The Big Stone Beach area is environmentally protected  because of Ted Harvey's foresight. Ted Harvey acquired 2700 acres along Big Stone Beach as part of the Ted Harvey Wildlife Area, giving the organization control over land that had been planned to be appropriated by oil companies for major building projects. Today, the conservation district is one of the premier East Coast wildlife refuges.

Directions to Big Stone Beach: North of Milford, Delaware, on Route 1, turn right (NE) at Thompsonville Road and go 3.5 miles. Turn right (E) onto Scotts Corner Road, arriving at Scott's Corners in 1.1 miles. Take a left (NE) onto Big Stone Beach Road. The road reaches the bayshore in another 2.6 miles after traveling through forests and marshes inhabited by songbirds and shorebirds.

Picture
Map of Delaware Bay Beaches by the US Fish & Wildlife Service


57 Comments

    Author

    Dr. Norene Moskalski can often be found walking the beaches of the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, collecting sea glass, weathered minerals, unusual shells, and artifacts from colonial shipwrecks. A naturalist and environmentalist by nature, and a medical diagnostician by avocation, she has a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration and has held administrative and teaching positions at Penn State University and Temple University. She has spent most of her life preparing administrators and teachers to lead and teach ethically with love and respect for everyone. The settings for her novels are authentic vignettes from university campuses and places around the world she has visited. Each novel presents a variation on a theme, using literary techniques and musical innuendos to move the action forward. Her plots revolve around the unexpected: What if the most beautiful things in the world are the most dangerous?

    SPECIAL SALE PRICE:  $2.99 KINDLE, NOOK, 
    AND KOBO
    Picture
    BUY NOW




    Archives

    August 2022
    March 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011

    Categories

    All
    1 + 1 = 3
    1962
    2014
    27th Annual Delaware Coastal Clean-up
    Abandoned Cats
    Activist
    And Environment
    A New Beginning
    Antibiotics
    Australia
    Bacteria
    Bay
    Bay Glass
    Beach
    Beachcomb
    Beachcombing
    Beaches
    Beach Grass
    Beach Water Quality
    Big Stone Beach
    Bird Watching
    Boating
    Book Signing
    Bowers Beach
    Cacti
    Charter Fishing Boats
    Citizen Scientists
    Coast
    Coastal Change
    Coastal Flooding
    Coast Day 2013
    College Of Earth
    College Park; And The Nature Conservancy.
    Companion Animals
    Crabbing
    Croakers
    Crowdsourced Data
    De
    Delaware
    Delaware Atlantic Seacoast
    Delaware Bay
    Delaware Legislators
    Dnrec
    Dnrec Beach Water Testing
    Dover
    Dunes
    Dunes Grass Planting
    Earth Day 2013
    Ecologist
    Ecology
    Environmental Movement
    Estuary
    Feral Cats
    Fishing
    Fishing Piers
    Flocks
    Flora And Fauna
    Fracking
    Genre
    Global Warming
    Green
    Happy New Year
    Healers
    Honey
    Horseshoe Crabs
    Hurricanes
    Hurricane Sandy
    ICoast
    I Love To Write Day
    Innovation
    John Riddle
    Kitts Hummock
    Kitts Hummock Beach
    Legislators
    Lewes
    Lewes Beach
    Lewes Historical Society
    Lewes-Rehoboth Canal
    Lost Cats
    Love
    Mahon Beach
    Map
    Marsh Birds
    Maryland
    Medicine
    Mid-Atlantic Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival
    Migratory Birdss
    Minerals
    Misty & Snowy
    Mud Flats
    Nasa
    National Recreational Water Quality Reports
    Native Plants
    Nature
    Noaa
    Nocturne
    Nor'easters
    Norene Moskalski
    Ocean
    Ocean Conservancy
    Oceans Day
    Oil Companies
    Opus 1: Sea Foam
    Partnership For The Delaware Estuary
    Peace
    Pennsylvania
    Persian Cats
    Pesticides
    Photographs
    Photography
    Physicians
    Pickering Beach
    Prime Hook Beach
    Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge
    Read
    Rehoboth
    Rehoboth Bay
    Rehoboth Beach
    Relax
    Resort
    Rest
    Robert A Nagle
    Rock Collecting
    Rockhounding
    Roosevelt Beach
    Sand Replenishment
    Sea Foam
    Sea Glass
    Shore
    Shore Birds
    Silent Spring
    Silver Spring
    S. Laughter Beach
    South Bowers Beach
    Springdale
    Storms
    Stray Cats
    Superflocks
    Surf
    Surfriderfoundation
    Surfriders' Foundation
    Surges
    Swimming
    Synergy
    Ted Harvey
    Testing The Waters
    TheFussyLibrarian.com
    The Nature Conservancy
    Top Water Quality Beaches
    University Of Delaware
    University Of Delaware; NASA'S Goddard Space Flight Center--Greenbelt Campus
    USGS
    Video
    Virginia Coast Reserve Long-Term Ecological Research Program; University Of Maryland
    Volunteer
    Wallops Flight Facility And The Goddard Institute Of Space Science; US Fish And Wildlife Service; US Geologic Survey; Chincoteague Bay Field Station Of The Marine Science Consortium; College Of William And Mary; Virginia Institute Of Marine Science; Unive
    Water
    Wilmington
    Woodland Beach
    World Earth Day
    World Water Day
    Yucca Plants
    Zebra Blue Butterrfly

    RSS Feed

    View my profile on LinkedIn
Photos used under Creative Commons from Allie_Caulfield, dno1967b, lincoln-log, Anna Oates, spisharam, Mr.TinDC, kanegen, Podknox, faungg's photo, lincoln-log, mayastone, Ajith (അജിത്ത്), bixentro, { pranav }, { pranav }, faungg, Allie_Caulfield, seeveeaar, razvan.orendovici, milesgehm, mnapoleon, corsi photo, faungg's photo