Cape May consists of a

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

and

barrier island Barrier islands are a Coast#Landforms, coastal landform, a type of dune, dune system and sand island, where an area of sand has been formed by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of an ...

system in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. It is roughly coterminous with

Cape May County Cape May County is the southernmost county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Much of the county is located on the Cape May peninsula, bound by the Delaware Bay to its west and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and east. Adjacent to the Atlantic ...

and runs southwards from the New Jersey mainland, separating

Delaware Bay Delaware Bay is the estuary outlet of the Delaware River on the northeast seaboard of the United States, lying between the states of Delaware and New Jersey. It is approximately in area, the bay's freshwater mixes for many miles with the saltw ...

from the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. The southernmost point in both New Jersey and the

northeastern United States The Northeastern United States (also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. Located on the East Coast of the United States, ...

lies on the cape. A number of resort communities line the Atlantic side of the cape, including Ocean City, the most populous community on the cape,

The Wildwoods The Wildwoods are a group of five communities (four distinct municipalities and one census-designated place) in Cape May County, New Jersey. These are situated on the Island of Five Mile Beach, a barrier island facing the Atlantic Ocean. These Jer ...

, known for its architecturally significant hotel district, and the city of Cape May, which has served as a resort community since the mid-1700s, making it the oldest such resort in the U.S. As 2024, the population is 2,757 with 90% being white.

Etymology

The peninsula is named for

Cornelius Jacobsen May Cornelis Jacobsen Mey, often spelled Cornelius Jacobsz May in Dutch, was a 17th-century Dutch explorer, captain, and fur trader. Mey was the first director of New Netherland and was stationed at Fort Amsterdam. Mey was the captain of the shi ...

, a Dutch explorer who worked for the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

Geography and ecology

The peninsula comprises the municipalities of

Avalon Avalon () is an island featured in the Arthurian legend. It first appeared in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 1136 ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' as a place of magic where King Arthur's sword Excalibur was made and later where Arthur was taken to recove ...

Cape May Cape May consists of a peninsula and barrier island system in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is roughly coterminous with Cape May County and runs southwards from the New Jersey mainland, separating Delaware Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. Th ...

, Cape May Point, Dennis Township,

Lower Township Lower Township is a township in Cape May County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township, and all of Cape May County, is part of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area, and is part of the Philadelphia- Wilmington- Camden, PA-NJ- D ...

, Middle Township,

North Cape May North Cape May is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Lower Township in Cape May County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Ocean City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2010 United ...

, North Wildwood,

Stone Harbor Stone Harbor is a borough in Cape May County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The borough, and all of Cape May County, is part of the South Jersey region of the state and of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area, which is part of the ...

, West Cape May, West Wildwood, and Wildwood Crest. The region is a popular destination for Québécois tourists. It is part of the Southern Shore Region. The city of Cape May, located on the island and south of the peninsula, is home to the oldest seaside resort in the nation with historical roots dating back to the 18th century. The entire city was designated as a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

on May 11, 1976, and many of the buildings throughout the town are original Victorian structures that have been maintained in pristine condition. The basic training camp of the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

is located in Cape May. This facility is the only enlisted basic training center for the United States Coast Guard in the country. Each recruit goes through eight weeks of training before being shipped out. Cape May is also famous as one of the top

birding Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device such as binoculars or a telescope, ...

sites in North America. There are many different parks and birding sites in the area. Due to its location at the southern tip of New Jersey and numerous nature preserves and wildlife refuges, large concentrations of birds can be found in Cape May, especially during spring and fall migration. Cape May Bird Observatory acts as the central coordinator of birding activities in Cape May, including the

World Series of Birding The World Series of Birding is an annual birding competition organised by the New Jersey Audubon Society since 1984. Participating teams compete to identify the greatest number of bird species by sight or sound in a 24-hour period. The event i ...

, held in Cape May and throughout New Jersey annually in May.

Cape Island

Cape Island is a man-made island at the southern tip of Cape May County, which consists of

, Cape May Point, West Cape May and portions of

. The island is separated from the mainland and the rest of Cape May County by the man-made Cape May Canal, Cape Island Creek and Cape May Harbor, which cut it off from the rest of the

Cape May Peninsula Cape May consists of a peninsula and barrier island system in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is roughly coterminous with Cape May County and runs southwards from the New Jersey mainland, separating Delaware Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. The so ...

. Cape May Canal is a

waterway A waterway is any Navigability, navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other ways. A first distinction is ...

connecting Cape May Harbor to the

, at the southern tip of

. Before the canal was built, "Cape Island" referred to the site of the City of Cape May, southeast of Cape Island Creek, a tidal "creek" and marsh that has been partly filled in at its southern end.

History

The Kechemeche tribe of the

Lenni Lenape The Lenape (, , ; ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historical territory included present-day northeastern Del ...

were the first residents of the area that historians know of. Each summer, the Native Americans vacationed at what is now Cape May to escape the summer heat. While there, they fished, hunted, and collected fruits before the advent of autumn mandated the return to their inland villages. The first European to catch a glimpse of Cape May was navigator

Henry Hudson Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the Northeastern United States. In 1607 and 16 ...

and 18 of his crew mates on the

Halve Maen ''Halve Maen'' (; ) was a Dutch East India Company ''jacht'' (similar to a carrack) that sailed into what is now New York Harbor in September 1609. She had a length of 21 metres and was commissioned by the VOC Chamber of Amsterdam in the Dutch ...

. On August 28, 1609, while searching for the

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...

, Hudson decided to sail up the unexplored

. Several miles up the coast, strong tides pulled the Halve Maen to a sandbar, and the crew was stranded until thunderstorms and wind aided the ship around the Cape May peninsula. This event was recorded by Hudson's first mate, Robert Juet. News of his discovery sparked a search for the location of a new trading post. English explorer

Samuel Argall Sir Samuel Argall ( or 1580 – ) was an English sea captain, navigator, and Deputy-Governour of Virginia, an English colony. As a sea captain, in 1609, Argall was the first to determine a shorter northern route from England across the Atlan ...

explored the bay and named it for the governor of the Virginia Colony,

Lord De La Warr Earl De La Warr ( ) is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1761 for John West, 7th Baron De La Warr. The Earl holds the subsidiary titles of Viscount Cantelupe (1761) in the Peerage of Great Britain, Baron De La Warr (15 ...

. Not to be outdone, the Dutch also sent some navigators to look for suitable sites for trading ventures. Among the band of explorers were Cornelis Henderson,

Adriaen Block Adriaen Courtsen Block (c. 1567 – 27 April 1627) was a Dutch private trader, privateer, and ship's captain who is best known for exploring the coastal and river valley areas between present-day New Jersey and Massachusetts during four voyages ...

, and Cornelis Jacobsen Mey. The recorded history of Cape May stretches back to 1620, when Captain Cornelius Jacobsen Mey surveyed and named the area for himself. It later grew from a small settlement to the large beach resort it has been since the 19th century. The City of Cape May asserts that its status as a vacation spot began in 1766, with Philadelphians coming in by stagecoaches, ships, and horse-drawn wagons, and that the Kechemeche Lenape had primarily used the land for hunting beforehand. Hotels were already on Cape May as of 1834. In 1782 during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, the young

Continental Navy The Continental Navy was the navy of the United Colonies and United States from 1775 to 1785. It was founded on October 13, 1775 by the Continental Congress to fight against British forces and their allies as part of the American Revolutionary ...

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

Joshua Barney Joshua Barney (6 July 1759 – 1 December 1818) was an American naval officer who served in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War and in the French Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars. He later achieved the rank of comm ...

fought with a British squadron at Cape May and Delaware Bay. Barney's force of three sloops defeated a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

, a sloop-of-war and a

Loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

. The battle ended with the loss of two British vessels and one American sloop.

References

External links

Cape May historyCape May Lighthouse

Cape May Chamber of CommerceCape May city websiteHistoric Cold Spring Village
{{authority control Landforms of Cape May County, New Jersey

May May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. May is a month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore, May in the Southern Hemisphere is the ...