New Jersey Trivia & Tidbits - Page 8

Looking for New Jersey trivia? Try our list New Jersey little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Photographer Dorothea Lange, whose lens captured everything from displaced farm families during the Great Depression to the effects of World War II on the home front, was born in 1895 in Hoboken.

first appeared: 7/25/2004

Atlantic City’s first boardwalk was built in 1870 to keep sand out of the city’s great hotels. Today’s boardwalk is 60-feet-wide and six miles long.

first appeared: 7/18/2004

The Powhattan, a ship reported to be carrying more than 300 German immigrants, wrecked in an 1854 storm off Long Beach Island. In 1904, a monument was erected in nearby Manahawkin (pop. 2,004) in their memory.

first appeared: 7/11/2004

The Kirkwood-Cohansey Aquifer, an underground reservoir of water beneath the New Jersey Pine Barrens, contains an estimated 17 trillion gallons of water.

first appeared: 6/27/2004

More than 200 wild animals have found a home at Popcorn Park Zoo in Forked River (pop. 4,914). The zoo was established in 1977 to provide refuge for sick, injured, elderly or abandoned animals.

first appeared: 6/20/2004

The New Jersey Pest Control Association’s Cockroach Derby is held every August at Rutgers University in New Brunswick (pop. 48,573). The contestants—Madagascar hissing cockroaches—sprint several feet to the finish line.

first appeared: 6/13/2004

William Still, born in 1821 near Medford (pop. 22,253), organized many of Philadelphia’s Underground Railroad operations. One of the former slaves he helped was his long-lost brother, Peter.

first appeared: 6/6/2004

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, working from her Tenafly (pop. 13,806) home, co-wrote a six-volume history of women’s suffrage, along with fellow suffragettes Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Gage.

first appeared: 5/30/2004

Lucy the Elephant, a 65-foot-high wooden pachyderm with interior rooms and stairs, cost $25,000 to build in 1881. After surviving a hurricane, fire and time, she’s now a tourist attraction in Margate (pop. 8,193).

first appeared: 5/23/2004

Sara the Turtle Festival is held each July in Sea Isle City (pop. 2,835). The 16-year-old event began as a way to teach children about sea turtles, which are often found on New Jersey’s beaches.

first appeared: 5/16/2004

From a 5-pound Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle to a 25-ton Humpback whale, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine (pop. 12,594) works to save all kinds of sea animals. It has built an international reputation for its work.

first appeared: 5/9/2004

The first NASCAR road race—run on a two-mile, non-oval course with several twists and turns—was held at the Linden Airport in Linden (pop. 39,394) in 1954.

first appeared: 5/2/2004

In 1954, Al Keller drove a Jaguar to victory during a race at the Linden (pop. 39,394) Airport. It is the only time a foreign car has ever won a NASCAR race.

first appeared: 4/25/2004

Bayonne-born Eger Murphree (1898-1962) was one of four Exxon inventors who in 1942 created the fluid catalytic cracking process that allowed the U.S. petroleum industry to increase output of aviation fuel over the next three years—significantly assisting the war effort.

first appeared: 4/18/2004

Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, was chartered in 1766 as Queen’s College, the eighth institution of higher learning to be founded in the Colonies. It opened its doors in New Brunswick (pop. 48,573) in 1771 with one instructor, one sophomore, and a handful of freshmen students.

first appeared: 4/11/2004

Presidents Buchanan, Grant, Harrison and Pierce are among those who have vacationed at Cape May (pop. 4,034), one of the oldest resorts on the Atlantic coast. An earlier, less extolled visitor was Captain Kidd, who filled his water casks near Lily Pond.

first appeared: 4/4/2004

Asbury Park (pop. 16,930) was planned in 1869 by New York businessman James A. Bradley as a haven for temperance advocates.

first appeared: 3/28/2004

The official state dinosaur, Hadrosaurus foulkii, was a duck-billed creature weighing 7 to 8 tons and found along the coastline 80 million years ago. It became the world’s first complete dinosaur skeleton when it was discovered in 1858 in Haddonfield (pop. 11,628).

first appeared: 3/21/2004

The 1758 Barracks Museum in Trenton was a French and Indian War barracks that once housed about 300 British and Irish soldiers.

first appeared: 3/14/2004

The Borough of Roosevelt (pop. 884) is one of only a few towns in America that is listed in its entirety on the National Register of Historic Places.

first appeared: 3/7/2004

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