Ocean Grove 1878. Harper’s Weekly © click on the image to see more detail. Special to Blogfinger.
Rich Amole, Blogfinger historian, sent us this amazing 19th century reproduction. You can see the vast size of Wesley Lake during the early years of OG. The lake has already been dammed, but you can see water flowing from the lake out to the ocean.
The ocean is in the foreground; the lake is upper right. Ocean Grove is to the left. Asbury Park is to the right, but off the image. You can also see extensive woodlands, many tents, and many boats. There already are some hotels and there are scattered cottages.
Thanks to Rich Amole, Blogfinger staff.
In late 1871, Stokes suggested a dam be placed on Wesley Lake to raise the water level. This was done by at least 1874. The dam proved problematic and broke with regularity—sometimes from heavy rains giving greater mass to the impounded lake and sometimes by ocean storms breaking in. It was always a tragedy when this happened in the summer season as it took a while for the lake to fill. Some kind of fish, perhaps shad, entered the lake from the ocean for spawning and there are accounts of people catching them by hand.
I agreed on the point about the exchange with the ocean— I noticed that too. It was a lagoon with a small creek filling it, so it would have had an inlet that may have closed during dry summertime periods.
The print of Wesley Lake is fascinating. The use of sailboats and those powered by motors were eventually prohibited on Wesley Lake, but allowed on Fletcher Lake.
In the year of the publication, OG and AP established the Lake Police to deal with unlicensed ferry boats and the use of profanity on the water. All boats had to have a registration number so offenders could be identified. Several hotels had boats that could be used by guests.