Mystic Island, New Jersey - Waterfront Homes and Chunks of History!
Mystic Island is a section of Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey...Ocean County's southernmost municipality.
It's main road, from Great Bay Boulevard to Mystic Beach at the Great Bay, used to be known as Shore Road. It winds through Mystic Island, Hickory Island and Osborn Island. This thoroughfare is now known as Radio Road.
That name came about in the early 1900's with the construction of the Tuckerton Wireless Tower, the tallest and strongest radio tower in 1912. Its guide wire foundations are still visible, though the tower is long gone.
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The tower was built by the German company known as HOMAG, The High Frequency Machine Corporation for Wireless Telegraphy. This tower was used to communicate with an identical station in Eilvese, Germany beginning in 1914, just before the outbreak of World War I.
Though taken over by the US Navy to assure the messages sent and received did not violate America's Declaration of Neutrality, the tower was still manned by German nationals employed by HOMAG. It's rumored that this tower was used to send the message ordering the attack on the Lusitania!
When the US entered the WW I, all radio stations were taken over and shut down by Executive Order. All the German employees of HOMAG were taken as prisoners of war and the Tuckerton Tower was assigned to the US Navy. They used it as a back up for the Navy's main transatlantic wireless station north of here in New Brunswick, NJ.
After the war, the Tuckerton Wireless Tower was included in German war reparations paid to America.
The government then sold the tower to RCA which used it as a backup a facility in Rocky Point, NY. It operated until 1948. The Tuckerton Wireless Tower was demolished in 1955 and that's when the single family homes in Mystic Island began cropping up
This 820 foot wireless tower was anchored by 3 huge blocks that exist today; one is in the backyard of a home on North Ensign Drive, one in the middle of the street on South Ensign Drive, and the other in the middle of Staysail.
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South Ensign Drive, Little Egg Harbor, NJ
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Staysail, Little Egg Harbor, NJ
Many smaller foundations for supporting towers are still visible in the lagoons of Mystic Island. If you'd like to see some great photos of the Tuckerton Wireless Tower, its construction and demolition, visit the Giffordtown Schoolhouse Museum, home of the Tuckerton Historical Society.
If you'd like information on the real estate market or homes for sale in Mystic Island, Little Egg Harbor or Tuckerton, give me a call!
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Laura...I just love this type of history lesson, So much of our nation began its humble beginnings on the east coast I find there is always something to learn about our past and much happened with in 10 miles of the ocean.