The mystique of New Jersey's Atlantis

The small, picturesque island off the southern end of Long Beach Island was once a popular seaside resort.

It had a lighthouse, lifesaving station, two rustic hotels, 20 summer cottages, and a community meetinghouse that served also as a church and school.

Vacationers from Philadelphia and southern New Jersey relaxed there as long ago as the late 1860s, enjoying its peaceful solitude, cool breezes, fishing, hunting, sailing, swimming, and clam bakes.

But Tucker's Island's days were numbered. Year by year, ocean tides and storms eroded it. The hotels closed in 1910 and later collapsed and were washed away. The lighthouse fell in 1927.

By 1944, Tucker's Island itself was gone - except for its mystique.

It became known by some historians as New Jersey's Atlantis.

"Who lived there? How did they live and why would anybody want to live on a barrier island that was disappearing?" asked Gretchen Coyle, who, with fellow maritime historian and Beach Haven resident Deborah Whitcraft, tries to answer those questions in a new book they coauthored, Tucker's Island.

"Today the island is about a quarter mile from shore," under about 10 feet of water, Coyle said.

Few if any traces of the community are visible. Maybe submerged brick foundations, possibly the lens from the lighthouse.

Members of "the Little Egg Coast Guard Auxiliary were the last ones to walk the island," said Coyle, 75. "They patroled [the area for enemy activity] during World War II and were there when only a couple acres were left."

The story of Tucker's Island is so compelling because of its disappearance "like Atlantis," said Whitcraft, 60, founder and president of the New Jersey Maritime Museum in Beach Haven.

With its lighthouse and lifesaving station, the island "aided shipwrecked mariners," but ultimately couldn't save itself from the irresistible waters of the Atlantic, Whitcraft said.

In her museum, she displays artifacts from the island, including a bell recovered by a lighthouse keeper from the wreck of the four-masted brigantine Cecil P. Stewart, and the 1910 Phoenix .44-caliber rifle once used by a keeper who was about the only law on the island.

"Many things washed up on shore from shipwrecks," said Whitcraft. The people "used pieces of wreckage to build anything they needed."

The island - located east of Tuckerton between Beach Haven and Little Egg Inlets - was once eight miles long and two miles across, and known by different names, including Short Beach, Flat Beach, Sea Haven, and St. Albans, said Coyle.

It was occupied by Lenni Lenape Native Americans in the 1500s, described by Dutch explorer Cornelius Mey as marshy in the 1600s, and was used to raise cattle in the 1700s, said Whitcraft.

The island was taken over in 1775 by Reuben Tucker, who built a tavern and boardinghouse that became a vacation spot for Quakers from Philadelphia and Burlington County.

A lighthouse and lifesaving station were constructed after the Civil War in 1867. Members of the Rider family manned both. The first lighthouse keeper was Eber Rider Sr., who held the job for nearly 40 years until his son Arthur Rider took over in 1904.

"Tucker's Island was a barrier island with rugosa rose bushes, cedar trees, and bayberry," said Coyle. "Arthur Rider wore puttees (cloth wraps from the ankles to the knees) to protect his legs from cuts from the thorns and scratchy grasses."

Two hotels, the Columbia and St. Albans, were added, as were cottages and other buildings. None had any plumbing or electricity but no one seemed to care.

Unscrupulous businessmen tried to sell stock in a proposed development on the island in the early 1900s even as evidence of erosion was becoming clear, Coyle said.

The Riders, meanwhile, "were happy to be there and mix with one another," Coyle said. "They didn't need extraneous company."

Eber Rider's wife, "Mary experienced 20 pregnancies," said Coyle. "Seven of their children lived to adulthood."

One of the sons, Jarvis, later served as the keeper of the U.S. Life Saving Station on the island and held the position for 46 years. After his retirement in 1915, he said, "I have done my best and lost no man in my crew, nor a sailor that ever got in my surfboat."

The Riders took their work on the island seriously. "They were good people," said Shirley Burd Whealton, 81, a Little Egg Harbor resident and great-great-granddaughter of Eber Rider Sr. "They were very hospitable people and nursed those who were rescued."

Tides and relentless storms continued to take their toll on the island, Whitcraft said.

The light of the lighthouse was last lit on Sept. 9, 1927. Many people traveled from Tuckerton to witness the last lighting and to, in effect, say goodbye to an old friend. Some stayed until the light was extinguished the next day.

On Oct. 7, keeper Arthur Rider wrote a final log entry: "Notice of retirement effective September 30th received today."

The ocean was closing in. The lighthouse began to tilt and the interior to crack as water flowed under the foundation. "The ground just kept eroding," said Coyle. "It got under the porch and it fell off."

Arthur Rider and his great-nephew, Paul Rider, "spent the last night camping in the lighthouse and the next day - Oct. 27, 1927 - the two of them heard a creaking noise and knew it was about to fall," Coyle said. "Paul had a camera and took the 'going, going, gone' photos.

"He just kept shooting," she said, "and the water kept coming and covered it over."

But the Riders and others regularly returned to what was left of the island. "They were drawn to it and would come for the day," Coyle said. "They almost couldn't let it go.

The Riders "had trouble settling back into civilization, going back to town with normal things like a grocery store and post office," she said. "Their whole life had been on Tucker's Island."

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