DE Seashore State Park: 50 years of family traditions

One of Mark Galbraith's earliest memories is being bundled into the family pickup as a child.

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.

Before he knew it, they had arrived at the family's vacation spot. It's a tradition that dates back to when his father was a boy.

"We would lay back sleeping, and next thing we knew we were at Indian River (Inlet)," said Galbraith, now 45.

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. 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.

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.

The common thread of the celebration is what park Interpretive Programs Manager Laura Scharle calls the Family Scrapbook project. A goal of park interpreters while speaking with visitors is to gather vacation photos — the older the better. The result will be a park scrapbook that goes back decades.

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“The park has been the site of countless, treasured family memories from visitors," said Doug Long, park superintendent. "I have worked at the park for over 20 years, but have also been a visitor myself for over 30 years, surfing or enjoying the pristine beaches.”

The storm that almost washed a park away

Before it became the Delaware Seashore State Park, it was almost destroyed.

The state considered the land useless prior to 1965, Long said.

Travel across the inlet wasn't possible because storms changed the location of the inlet periodically. Permanent jetties were built in the 1930s to stabilize the inlet, allowing several bridges to be built.

The Highway Commission maintained a small campground, and people were free to do whatever they wanted on the beach and the bay, Long said.

But a big storm changed everything.

The Great March Storm of 1962, also known as the Ash Wednesday Storm, was a level five nor'easter on the Dolan-Davis intensity scale that hit the region in March. It is considered by some authorities, including the U.S. Geological Survey, as one of the 10 worst storms in the United States of the 20th century.

By the time it was over, 40 were dead and more than 1,000 injured. Hundreds of millions in property damage was reported across six states, from North Carolina to Maine. Some of Chincoteague's streets were under 6 feet of water. The Wallops Island NASA Flight Facility suffered millions of dollars of damage. Ocean City was subjected to 60 mph winds and 25 foot waves; 40 foot waves were recorded in Rehoboth Beach.

Dunes were flattened all along the Delaware coast.

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The Highway Commission banned all activity there following the storm.

At last, around 1965, the State Parks Commission took it over and began restoring the beaches and making improvements.

Delaware Seashore State Park opened in 1967.

But even at that time, the facilities were "modest and rough around the edges," Long said.

The small campground had only 50 sites and didn't take reservations, Galbraith recalled. 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.

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.

After 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.

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.

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. The new features were completed in 2015.

"Our leaders (in the '60s) had just incredible foresight," Long said. "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. Wow, what a gift we got."

A lifetime of family memories being collected 

There is a theme to the celebration throughout the season.

The focus will be on the recreational reasons that people have come to the park for so many years, said Scharle, who has been working at the park for 11 years.

The anniversary celebration will kick off with "Celebrate Fishing," which will coincide with the annual Spring Surf Fishing Tournament hosted by Old Inlet Bait and Tackle on May 13.

"Celebrate the Beach" on July 8 will coincide with the annual park sandcastle contest at the South Inlet beach area.

"Celebrate the Bay" on Aug. 26 will be a new event featuring a 3-mile kayak tour of marshlands and islands on Rehoboth Bay.

Finally, the closing event on Sept. 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.

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The Family Scrapbook project will continue all year. Digital photos can be contributed on the park's website at destateparks.com/dssp50th.

Although 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. Family photos don't just show the park — they celebrate it.

"That's what we want to see, people having fun in our park over the last couple generations," she said.

The photos they receive will become part of a traveling exhibit that will be displayed at each of the four celebration events. 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 important thing now is to capture memories.

"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. 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."

Generation after generation of visitors 

Galbraith has been going to the park since he was born. Members of his family have been going regularly to that area since the 1940s. He has a photo of his father, Gary, at the inlet from 1955, when his dad was just 12.

His father was a fisherman, but Galbraith and his family prefer the beaches and the campground.

Others who have visited for decades certainly have come to fish.

Ron Conaway, 81 of Kirkwood, Delaware, has been fishing near the inlet for more than 60 years.

"I've been down there since I was 10 years old, with my father and uncles," Conaway said. "I wasn't a good fisherman like them guys, but I learned from the best of them."

He doesn't surf fish anymore. He prefers to fish at the railing and along the rocks at the Inlet early in the morning and at night. His health isn't what it used to be, and he can't climb the rocks like he used to, but he'll still jump at the chance to go if his daughter will drive him.

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"I'll go down for the day and catch the tide just right," he said. "It's good to visit with my old buddies."

And as generations upon generations of families have visited the area, the ways they enjoy the park have evolved.

Galbraith now owns a Bethany Beach property, and visits the Delaware Seashore park from there.

He and his wife have two daughters, and much like with his childhood, the daughters will mimic his tradition.

"We don't go to the beach anywhere other than Indian River," Galbraith said. "We just prefer the state park. That's what my daughters grew up on. They're now 14 and 16, so they're older than my dad was in that picture from 1955.

"My mom and my dad always went to that beach when they were teenagers with my dad's parents. Just a lot of family history there."

dferrar@dmg.gannett.com