Dildine Island

[MightyMouse82]

Does anyone have any info on the history of Dildine Island on the Delaware River? (Near Belvidere, NJ and Mt. Bethel, PA). My grandfather's cabin is on the PA bank directly across from the island. He said that right before the turn of the century there was a resort on the island for the very wealthy and was completely destroyed by a flood in the early 1900's (long before the historic 1955 flood).
Can't find anything through google


Chris

 

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[generik]

All I found was USGS topo and some geneology stuff. No real answers yet, sorry.

 

[jgraves]

My family actually owns one of the houses on the island! I'm trying to do a speech on it. All I could find too was that there was a resort called The Manunka Chunk House. Which is funny, because the island is technically in PA, though our Jersey side docks are in Manunka Chunk.

 

[bluecanoe1]

Hi. This is from my book Paddler's Guide to the Delaware River:

202.7. The site of Manunka Chunk, once an important rail junction, NJ side.
202.6. Upstream end of Dildine Island, extending about one mile. Paddlers can go to either side. The deeper channel is to the right, with a nice Class I rapids around gravel bars near the end of the island. The NJ side leads into the maze of Macks Bars, little islets with winding passages between. It can be fun to explore the little channels.
The Manunka Chunk House, a luxury hotel, occupied the island in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. The hotel burned to the ground in 1938. Today private cottages and boat landings dot Dildine Island.
201.9. There is a small island in the right (PA) channel; go to either side for nice Class I rapids.
Rapids also begin in the left-hand channels.
201.7. King Cole Grove, a long-time riverside ice cream stop and snack bar on U.S. Route 46 (NJ side), once a favorite of river users, alas has closed.
201.6. Downstream end of Dildine Island.

The island is named for William Dildine, the original grantee (from William Penn) of much of the land from the Water Gap down to Belvidere, in the 1600s.