Neptune and Shark River Hills are neighboring New Jersey towns that grew from two different but distinctly American traditions. Neptune is the child of traditional agrarian roots, developing from a patchwork of early 1800s farmsteads into an urbanized shore hub intersected by major highways. Shark River Hills lay undeveloped until the 1920s, and it was American entrepreneurism that sparked its development as a planned community. "The Hills" was a buyers' package pitched to the dream of owning a summer place at the Jersey shore. Images from 1800 to 1980 document the evolution of these coastal towns from shore wilderness to modern communities, just a toll's throw from New Jersey's Garden State Parkway. Farmsteads and country values characterized early Neptune. Captured here are images of the area's schoolhouses, fire companies, merchants, and townspeople. Resurrected are fondly remembered landmarks like Storyland Village and the Neptune Music Circus. Celebrated are Neptune natives such as actor Jack Nicholson, explorer Ike Schlossbach, football star Bob Davis, and rock 'n roller Southside Johnny. Scenes of Shark River Hills from the early 1900s offer a window into a simpler time in an idyllic place, when locals worked and played on "Shack River." Images of summer sojourners beckon from riverbank clambakes, dockside competitions, and country club socials. A year-round bedroom community today, few recall "The Hills" Poor Farm, its daredevil aviator, or the treasure rumored to be buried in "Money Hill."

Excerpt from The Shark River District, Monmouth County, New Jersey: And Genealogies of Chambers, Corlies Drummond, Morris, Potter, Shafto Webley and White Sir Henry Hudson, in the Half Moon, in the latter part of August, 1609, left Delaware bay, and on Sept. 2 passed Barnegat inlet, then unnamed, and anchored for the night along the Jersey coast, probably off the site of the present Asbury Park. At 5 o'clock we anchored, being light wind, and rode in eight fathoms of water, the night was fair. This night I found the land to have the com pass eight degrees. Far to the northward we saw high hills; for the day before we found not above two degrees of variation. - Log of the Half Moon. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.