Cedar Swamp Wildlife Area: A Vanished Resort and Vanished House

 

Boaters off the boat ramp at the end of Collins Beach Road in Cedar Swamp Wildlife Area

One of the most remote spots we’ve encountered so far along the Delaware Bay Shore Byway is Cedar Swamp Wildlife Area. Phone and GPS signals are spotty. Like many of Delaware’s wildlife areas, its limited development has focused on the needs of hunters and boaters. There are no wildlife viewing trails or information kiosks here.

But there were once two significant historic spots here that we tried--and failed--to seek out. 

One was Collins Beach, one of the beach resorts developed along the Delaware River and Bay during the 1800s. A hotel called Hygenia House was built there in 1850 and a pier for a steamboat added in 1856. Eventually the resort had a restaurant, dance hall, merry-go-round, and bath houses. 

Illustration of Collins Beach, with Hygenia House on left, from a wayfinding sign at Woodland Beach Wildlife Management Area

Tragedy struck in 1878, when a tidal wave from a hurricane washed away most of the beach and structures, leaving only the hotel cut off from the mainland. Afterwards the beach continued to erode. By 1904 there was very little beach left, and Hygenia House made its way down the Delaware Bay to Woodland Beach. One source I read said Hygenia House was floated down to Woodland Beach; another said wood from Hygenia House was used to rebuild the hotel at Woodland Beach. At any rate, the hotel at Woodland Beach is also long gone. 

We were hoping to find the site of the Collins Beach resort. Collins Beach Road deadends at a boat launch on an inlet near but not on the Delaware Bay. The views here are pretty, but we weren’t close enough to the Delaware Bay to see any remains of Collins Beach. 

Looking east toward Delaware Bay from the boat ramp at the end of Collins Beach Road

We also couldn’t find any paths or roads to the Delaware Bay shoreline to continue our hunt. If you have any information on exactly where Collins Beach was and whether it’s accessible today, please post a comment!

The other significant historic spot in Cedar Swamp Wildlife Area was the Deakyne-Vogel House, also known as the Vogel House. It was built around 1800, with a large, striking water tower adjacent. 

I found this photo online of Deakyne-Vogel House (or Vogel House) before it was destroyed

By the early 1900s Deakyne-Vogel House was a plant nursery and there was a graveyard in the back. Later it was abandoned and vandalized. This blog post shows its condition five years ago. About four years ago, according to someone commenting on this blog post, the house had been vandalized so badly that the state tore it down, and the striking water tower was burned down by vandals shortly thereafter. (Note that the blog author confused Deakyne-Vogel House with Hygenia House.)

We were hoping to track down the site of the Deakyne-Vogel House to see the graveyard in back, but I couldn’t find any accurate information online on exactly where it was. If you know, please post a comment! UPDATE 9/2/2021: See the comments below for information on the location of the remains of the Deakyne-Vogel House and graveyard. UPDATE 2/3/2022: I received an email from a descendant of the Deakynes. She said that apparently, the Deakynes had a shop in Deakyneville [a town once here] and Abraham Lincoln appointed Thomas Deakyne as postmaster general. She also said that there is a church nearby with gravestones of other, more recent Deakynes.

You’ll need a Conservation Access Pass to park anywhere in Cedar Swamp Wildlife Area EXCEPT at the Collins Beach boat ramp, where parking is free. 

UPDATE 9/28/2020

I found the site of the Hygenia House! It’s on a map in an extensive report on the 1878 hurricane and its aftermath published by the Delaware Geological Survey (Figure 13 on page 74, to be specific).

The Hygenia House was across the inlet from the Collins Beach boat ramp, a bit to the east on the shore of the Delaware Bay. The distant pylons in the photo below might be remains of the resort. There are no roads or trails in that part of Cedar Swamp Wildlife Area, so you can’t get a closer look unless you have a boat. 

The pylons in the distance--on the Delaware Bay just north of the Cedar Swamp tidal stream--might be remains of the Collins Beach resort.

After the hurricane, people tried building a bridge to Collins Beach and filling the breaches in the shoreline, but their work kept getting washed away by subsequent storms. The report confirms that Hygenia House was torn down in 1904, not floated down to Woodland Beach as reported elsewhere, although of course lumber and other materials from the hotel might have been floated down.

The report answered another question I had: the body of water at the boat ramp. It’s the tidal stream of Cedar Swamp.

The hurricane of 1878 affected the entire mid-Atlantic region, although Collins Beach seems to have fared among the worst. In New Castle, Jefferson House was flooded with 4 feet of water. Altogether the report is an interesting read.

UPDATE 1/31/2021

Someone on Facebook (I don't share names because of privacy concerns) let me know that in 1997 Everett D. (Dave) Bryan published an 84-page paperback book entitled "Ho! For Collins Beach!" that's very informative on the resort's history. 

Comments

  1. Dee PettingillDecember 21, 2020 at 2:14 AM

    I found a graveyard back aways behind the cedar house and tower maybe 15 years ago. The structures were in good shape then. It was a small graveyard. All the names were Deakyne on the headstones. Maybe 8-10 graves...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Linda SuskieDecember 21, 2020 at 11:32 AM

      That's so great that you found it! Do you remember where the house and tower were? We couldn't find any sign of them or the graveyard.

      Delete
  2. BriannaSeptember 6, 2021 at 3:34 PM

    The graveyard and old Vogel house are down the long dirt path with a gate before you turn right to go to the road with a boat dock. There is a stop sign and a place to park. There are hunting spot back there but it’s down that long dirt path the tower and house were beautiful I remember it from years ago

    ReplyDelete
  3. DAVID STELLERSeptember 7, 2021 at 2:38 PM

    THE DEAKYNE FAMILY USE TO TAKE CARE OF THE GRAVEYARD ALSO THE CURVE GOING TOWARD COLLINS BEACH NEAR THE OLD BARN USE TO GO STRAIGHT ACROSS CONNECT TO CEDAR SWAMP ROAD ALL THAT LAND WAS FARM LAND BEFORE THE TIDAL WAVE HIT

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Linda SuskieSeptember 8, 2021 at 7:17 AM

      Wow...it's hard to imagine a road crossing all those streams, but they were probably much smaller in those days. Thank you for sharing, David!

      Delete
  4. Linda SuskieSeptember 8, 2021 at 7:14 AM

    Thank you so much, Brianna!

    ReplyDelete

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