Crowds throng the beach at Atlantic City, New Jersey. circa 1908. Photo credit: Detroit Publishing Company
The town of Beach Haven, on the southern end of Long Beach Island off the coast of New Jersey, has been a popular summer resort for more than a hundred years. Located just twenty miles north of Atlantic City, Beach Haven has been the favourite destination for couples and families from New Jersey and Pennsylvania looking for a seaside escape.
The summer of 1916 was one of the hottest in recent memory, and Beach Haven was packed with vacationers. To provide shade to visitors, more than two hundred trees were planted and a new express train from Philadelphia shortened the travel time to just under two hours.
Among the vacationers was Charles Vansant, a 25-year-old stockbroker from Philadelphia. On July 1, 1916, he arrived in Beach Haven and, after checking in at the Engleside Hotel, headed straight to the beach for a late-afternoon swim in the Atlantic. Vansant waded into the surf just beyond the breakers, where the water reached his chest, and began calling out to a large Chesapeake Bay retriever that was playing on the beach. The dog, however, seemed uninterested in joining him.
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