Broadkill Beach: Using Dunes to Save This Stretch of the Delaware Bay Shoreline

Broadkill Beach

Broadkill Beach is the southernmost beach along the Delaware Bayshore Byway, about five miles up the coast from Lewes and a half hour drive from Rehoboth (depending on traffic).

Like most other Bayshore communities along the Delaware Bay, Broadkill Beach is a single road (Bayshore Drive) running parallel to the shoreline, with homes lining the beachfront. Also like several other Bayshore communities, Broadkill Beach is a horseshoe crab sanctuary. And like many other shorefront communities, Broadkill Beach is unincorporated, which means there’s no town government or local municipal services, including public restrooms or trash cans.

 

But Broadkill Beach is different from other beaches along the Delaware Bayshore Byway. Here the beach has been rebuilt with impressive dunes and a wider beach. This makes the homes here much less susceptible to storm or tidal flooding than many of those to the north.

 

Broadkill Beach's rebuilt dunes

Broadkill Beach's rebuilt beach

As I explain in my post on Liston Range lighthouses, the US Army Corps of Engineers routinely dredges the entire shipping channel of the Delaware Bay and River. When the US Army Corps of Engineers dredged the Delaware Bay’s shipping channel in 2015, the dredged sand was used to create Broadkill Beach's dunes and rebuild its beach. The State of Delaware paid for the dune crossings, storm fencing, and dune grasses. I’m not sure why Broadkill benefitted with dunes and a replenished beach when so many threatened beaches to the north have not.

 

Broadkill Beach is also somewhat unique among Bayshore beaches in having its own store: Broadkill Store, a decades-old local landmark.

Broadkill Store

 

At the southern end of Broadkill Beach is Beach Plum Island Nature Preserve, part of Delaware’s state park system (technically part of Cape Henlopen State Park). (UPDATE 9/11/2021: Read more about beach plums here.) 

At the entrance to the preserve, Bayshore Drive becomes a gravel road leading to a small parking lot.

Entrance to Beach Plum Island Nature Preserve

You can find a map of the Preserve here.

 

Here the bayfront is undeveloped and beautiful.

Beach Plum Island Nature Preserve, looking toward the Delaware Bay

Looking inland, you can see Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, which Broadkill Beach borders.

Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, seen from Beach Plum Island

Access to Beach Plum Island is limited (it’s a nature preserve, after all, designed to protect wildlife). Fishing is allowed in some designated spots.

 

Some Bayfront communities welcome visitors with parking lots, trash cans, and other services (though only Slaughter Beach has public restrooms beyond portapotties). Others actively discourage visitors with signs saying they are a private community or on a private road. Yet others don’t forbid visitors but discourage them by providing virtually no public parking.

 

Broadkill falls into this last category because Broadkill has no municipal services to support visitors such as trash collection or beach cleaning. So, while visitors are not actively discouraged, visitors are not encouraged and public parking is very limited. We saw a few spaces near Broadkill Store and at the entrance to Plum Beach Island but little anywhere else. There was no parking, for example, at a public access path to the beach a ways south of Broadkill Store, so I’m not sure who uses it.

Public access path to Broadkill Beach

I found a nice blog post on Broadkill Beach here . One thing it doesn’t mention are the biting black flies that can send you indoors on some days. (Read my Port Mahon post to learn about my encounter with them.)

I couldn’t find much information online about the origins of Broadkill Beach. We do know the name Broadkill comes from the Dutch, who were early settlers along the Delaware River and Bay. "Brod" is the Dutch word for, well, broad, and "kill" is the Dutch word for river. The Broadkill River runs from Milton (see blog posts here and here and here) toward Broadkill Beach, then turns south and runs behind Beach Plum Island before turning into Delaware Bay about a mile or two north of Lewes.

Delaware Public Archives has two undated postcards of Broadkill Beach from the early 1900s. Oliver Beideman was proprietor of the Broadkill Store.

Undated early 20th century postcard of Broadkill Beach

Another undated early 20th century postcard of Broadkill Beach

A blog post claims that for many years Broadkill Beach could be accessed only by a footbridge. Only in 1932 was a bridge built allowing vehicles onto Broadkill Beach. 

Delaware Public Archives also has two aerial photos of Broadkill Beach from 1970. It’s changed just a teeny tiny bit in the last 50 years! 😉

Aerial view of Broadkill Beach in March 1970

Another aerial view of Broadkill Beach in March 1970

In lower Delaware, the Delaware Bayshore Byway’s “spine” is Coastal Highway (DE 1). Turn onto DE 16 to reach the DBB's southernmost stops. Turn west for Milton (see my posts here and here and here). Turn east for Broadkill Beach and Prime Hook National Wildlife Reserve. 

As you continue south on Coastal Highway past DE 16, development and traffic start to increase. You are leaving the backroads of the Delaware Bayshore Byway behind and approaching Delaware’s busy beach resort areas.

The Delaware Bayshore Byway ends at the busy intersection of Coastal Highway and Dartmouth Drive, which leads to Lewes. Here the road is no longer one less traveled.

Southern end of the Delaware Bayshore Byway, looking north

If you like, you can turn left toward Lewes and explore the Historic Lewes Byway, which we’re looking forward to seeing. And if you’re feeling really ambitious, you can then take the Cape May-Lewes Ferry to New Jersey, then take New Jersey’s Bayshore Heritage Scenic Byway up the eastern shore of the Delaware Bay. Cross the Delaware Memorial Bridge back into Delaware, and you will have completed a loop around the Delaware Bay.