Milford chronicle., 1959-07-31
Beaches Dot Bay
And Ocean Fronts

While Rehoboth Beach is the
best known and largest of Della
wares coastal resorts, other beach
es dot the states bay and ocean
fronts, and are sharing, in varying
degree, a record-breaking influx
of vacationists advises the Della
ware State Development Depart
ment.
The largest of these, Lewes, and
Bethany Beach On each side, with
Lewes "stone-throw" to the north
on Delaware Bay, and Bethany
Beach just a short distance south
on Delaware Route No. IA.
Lewes, site of the first European
attempt at settlement in what is
now Delaware, offers the color as
sociated with fishing port in add
ition to excellent swimming and
boating. in protected bay waters.
Long popular as a family type
resort, Lewes, today, offers excel
lent tourists Accommodations; Spec
ial events, such as Sunday after
noon yacht. races, mid-August
Homecoming Week., and the ann
ual Labor Day Swim Races and
Marine Flotilla Parade, provide en-
tertainment for summer visitors.
The Zwaanendael Museum and
various monuments serve to recall
a historic past that included an at
tempt at settlement by the Dutch
in 1881 and bombardment by the
British during the War of 1872.
Delaware Bay and River pilots
still make their homes and head
quarters there, and many CONNER
cial and pleasure fishing boats
have Lewes as their home port.
Bethany Beach, approximately
midway between the rapidly grow
ing and bustling Atlantic Coast re-
sorts of Rehoboth and Ocean City,
Md is experiencing a small boom
of its own with more and more
vacationists discovering and enjoy
ing the quiet religious atmosphere
that is a carryover from Bethany
Beach's early days.
This somewhat unique resort
had its beginning in 1898 when it
was selected as the site for summer
activities of the Christian Mission
ary Society of Maryland and the
District of Columbia. AS the Beth
any Beach Improvement Company,
the religious group purchased land
sufficient for 100 building lots and
began construction of an octangle
shaped Tabernacle. This Taber-
nacle, dedicated on July IL, 1901,
still remains as one of the most
distinctive buildings in the area.
Difficult to reach in it's earlier
days when the little steamboat
Atlantic was used to transport
passengers and supplies from a
railroad spur near Rehoboth across
inland waters to the area, today's
Bethany Beach is easily accessible
from north and south by dualized
sections of Delaware Route No. IA
and from the west by Delaware
Route No. 26.
Recent dredging of nearby AS
sawoman Canal, vital link in the
inland waterway system connecting
Delaware Bay, at Lewes, with
Chincoteague Bay, in Virginia, has
resulted in increasing Bethany
Beach's popularity among boating
enthusiasts.
Smaller resorts, such as Dewey
Beach, sandwiched between the
Atlantic Ocean and Rehoboth Bay,
and Fenwick Island, straddling the
Mason-Dixon Line at Delaware's
southeastern extremity, are curr-
emily expanding as a result of
greater tourist traffic. New develop
ments serve to give the area be-
tween Bethany Beach and Fenwick
Island the appearance of one con-
tinuous community.
North of Lewes are several bay
front resorts noted principally for
good fishing. Included among these
are Broadkill, Prime Hook, Fowler
and Slaughter Beaches. Slaughter
Beach, on the bay due east of Mil
ford, offers a revival of the once
popular big Thursday" on Au-
gust goth.
Still farther up the Delaware
Bay, in Kent County, are Big
Stone Beach, Bowers Beach, Kits
Hummock, Pickering Beach, Port
Mahon and Woodland Beach, also
noted for fishing.
All of Delaware's beaches are ac-
cessible by good roads, notes the
Development Department.