"I've been down there since I was 10 years old, with my father and uncles," Conaway said. I've been coming here since before I was born.' If people come and they want to tell us about grandpa reeling in the biggest fish of his life at 3 R's Beach, we want to hear those stories." "I talked to someone recently, she learned to ride a bike in our campground," Scharle said. "She said, 'I have pictures of my mom pregnant with me in the campground. The important thing now is to capture memories. It will eventually become a digital scrapbook accessible by the public, but Scharle said the final form of that scrapbook hasn't been determined yet. The photos they receive will become part of a traveling exhibit that will be displayed at each of the four celebration events. "That's what we want to see, people having fun in our park over the last couple generations," she said. Family photos don't just show the park - they celebrate it.
Delaware seashore state park professional#
Digital photos can be contributed on the park's website at /dssp50th.Īlthough the park has a lot of professional photos showing off its beauty, Scharle said they are not as special as what visitors have in their family albums. The Family Scrapbook project will continue all year. READ MORE: Delmarva's secret place in Wawa history 23, "Celebrate the Inlet," will highlight the camping lifestyle available at the park, with live music, a beach bonfire, guided hikes of the Indian River Inlet Bridge and overnight camping on the beach itself. 26 will be a new event featuring a 3-mile kayak tour of marshlands and islands on Rehoboth Bay.įinally, the closing event on Sept. "Celebrate the Beach" on July 8 will coincide with the annual park sandcastle contest at the South Inlet beach area. "To take state surplus land that had no value and turn it into one of our best resources today, seven miles of pristine beach and bay and everything in between. "Our leaders (in the '60s) had just incredible foresight," Long said. Once the bridge was finished, Delaware Seashore was able to get funds from DelDOT and the federal government to replace the "primitive" north inlet campground with a modern facility including RV hookups, parking, a bathhouse, comfort stations, and improved pedestrian and cycling paths across the bridge. Improvements were made in the late '90s and early 2000s, but the real boom came in 2010. Construction of the current Indian River Inlet Bridge forced demolition of everything in its footprint, and many facilities were closed through years of construction delays. Those who weren't lucky could stay in the overflow parking lot on the north side without hookups, or go home after their day at the beach.Īfter the park opened, the General Assembly drew money from the United States Land and Water Conservation Fund in 1969 to build the South Inlet Beach Bathhouse that is still in use, add RV hookups and form a professional lifeguard and beach service.
Campers had to get there early to get a lottery number, then wait until almost noon to see if they would have a place to stay the night.
The small campground had only 50 sites and didn't take reservations, Galbraith recalled. The park will mark its 50th anniversary this year with a four-pronged celebration focused on the outdoor activities that draw visitors there. Beginning in May and continuing through September, park interpretive staff will be present at these events to talk with visitors and ask them to share memories of vacations spent there.īut even at that time, the facilities were "modest and rough around the edges," Long said. The park has been a magnet for families looking to camp, fish, hit the beach and kayak through the years - located in six miles of undeveloped coastline surrounding the Indian River Inlet between Bethany Beach and Dewey Beach. Galbraith's family is just one of many who have been vacationing at Delaware Seashore State Park for generations - before it was even a state park. "We would lay back sleeping, and next thing we knew we were at Indian River (Inlet)," said Galbraith, now 45. It's a tradition that dates back to when his father was a boy. The Carlisle, Pennsylvania, native's parents would usher the three kids into the truck with pillows and blankets in the wee hours of the morning.īefore he knew it, they had arrived at the family's vacation spot. One of Mark Galbraith's earliest memories is being bundled into the family pickup as a child.
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