The First Resort: Fun, Sun, Fire and War in Cape May, America's Original Seaside Town

Cape May, NJ: Exit Zero Press, 2010. Hardcover. Fine. Oblong in color illustrated hardcovers. A fine, fresh, unused copy; issued without dust jacket. Second edition. Illustrated endpapers; 302 pp. with bibliography. Profusely illustrated in black and white and in color with vinatge photogarphs, stereocards, reproductions of adverts, post cards, etc. A breathtaking, magnificantly illustrated look at the history of one of America's first resort towns, Cape May, New Jersey. This eventual queen of the Jersey Shore was firts inhabited, when Henry Hudson visited, by the Lenni Lenape Native America tribe. Over the decades, it grew from a small settlement into an important site during the American Revolution for privateers and supply shipments; after the Civil War, cape May became the site of summer cottages and magnificent Victorian mansions. Here the author tells tales of Cape May " Diamonds" (actually polished quartz stones that wash up on the beach); the "Legend of The Blue Pig"; the Henry Sawyer lottery; African Americans on the cape; the Great Fire fo 1878; visits from Presidents; a history of the Boardwalk; the capture of a German U-boat during WWII, and much more.