New Era monument search unsuccessful
'It's a great mystery and we would have loved to solve it'
A beachfront search for the lost New Era monument yielded no results this weekend, and the Asbury Park Historical Society [APHS] is looking at replicating the 19th-century artifact.
Asbury Park’s founder, James A. Bradley, erected the monument to the New Era shipwreck in around 1893, APHS member Don Stine said. The year after its installation, the monument toppled off the boardwalk and into the sand in a storm. It hasn’t been seen since, although the chain wrapped around its base was recovered after the storm.
The APHS hired ground-penetrating radar specialists, with permission from the city council, to sweep the beach for the monument on Saturday, Sept. 15 [pictured above].
Stine headed up the search for the monument, with help from Allenhurst resident Richard Fernicola, APHS member Matthew Hiznay, and New Jersey Historical Divers Association founder Dan Lieb.
The search crew used ground-penetrating radar to search for the 12-foot-high monument on the beach just north of Convention Hall. They looked from 10 a.m. until about 1 p.m., Stine said.
“I am a little disappointed but I’m not surprised that we didn’t find it,” Stine said.
The radar found two objects under the sand. The crews dug about three or four feet into the sand then used a metal probe to determine if either object could be the monument. One of the objects appeared to be an archaic outlet pipe leading into the ocean. The other did not seem to be made of concrete, so it likely wasn’t the monument, Stine said.
Because the monument was not found on the beach, Stine thinks it could be located under the boardwalk somewhere.
“The boardwalk used to be about 30 feet wide and now it’s about 55 feet,” he said. “It might be under the boardwalk somewhere. If that’s the case, we’re never going to find it unless the boardwalk is severely damaged in a storm or replaced at some point.”
The APHS will now examine the possibility of replacing the monument with a new version, Stine said.
“One of the great mysteries of Asbury Park is where the James A. Bradley monument to the New Era shipwreck is,” Stine said. “It’s a great mystery and we would have loved to solve it.”
