Tuckerton Seaport

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Every October the NJ Lighthouse Society runs the Lighthouse Challenge of New Jersey in order to raise funds for the state’s historic lighthouses and maritime sites. This year, we purchased an incomplete commemorative deck of cards at our starting point and then tried to complete the deck by collecting cards at each of the participating locations. There were 13 sites included in the challenge this year and I got to 5 of them on the Saturday of the challenge.

After visiting the Absecon Lighthouse in Atlantic City, I headed over to the Tucker’s Island Light in Tuckerton Seaport. Tuckerton Seaport is a working maritime village with some historic and some recreated buildings around a mile-long boardwalk on Tuckerton Creek.

The lighthouse is one of the recreated buildings because the original fell into the ocean in 1927 as the island on which it sat eroded away. Tucker’s Island was completely gone by 1952.

The reproduction in Tuckerton Seaport is modeled after the 1868 lighthouse on Tucker’s Island. Tucker’s Island was originally a part of Long Beach Island but the ocean cut an inlet through it in the 1800s, creating a separate small ocean resort island with hotels, homes, a coast guard station and a lighthouse. All of this washed away in the early 1900s as the island was reclaimed by the sea.

The reconstruction was made possible in part through funds from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. There is a museum on the second floor with exhibits on New Jersey maritime heritage.

From the museum floor, it’s a 42-step climb to the tower (a piece of cake after the 228-steps I’d just climbed at Absecon Light.) You can walk around the balcony outside and take in the view of the seaport on one side and Lake Pohatcong on the other. It’s six miles from where the original light sat, so you can’t see the ocean.