The Vanishing of Jesse Hunt: Wildwood’s 1906 Surfside Mystery

The Vanishing of Jesse Hunt: Wildwood’s 1906 Surfside Mystery

[Note: This is a true story]

It was a sunny summer day in Wildwood, New Jersey—July 18th, 1906. The beach was packed with people soaking up the sun, splashing in the waves, and enjoying everything that made Wildwood such a fun place to be.

But by lunchtime, something happened that still has people scratching their heads more than 100 years later: a young man went into the ocean and never came out.

Who Was Jesse Hunt?

Jesse G. Hunt was a 25-year-old electrician from Vineland. He was a good swimmer, well-liked, and spending his summer working at Hurff’s Cigar Store, tucked beneath the popular Seaside Hotel. His dad had once been a postmaster and assemblyman, so Jesse was known and respected in the area. Life was good.

The Day He Disappeared

That Friday, Jesse headed to the beach with some friends—Mr. and Mrs. Tice and a Miss Adams—for a quick swim near Wildwood Avenue. The tide was low, the sun was out—it should’ve been a perfect afternoon.

But while in the water, Jesse dove into a big wave… and vanished.

At first, his friends thought maybe he was playing around. But as the seconds stretched into minutes, panic set in. Mr. Tice and another man ran into the surf, searching frantically. Two girls on the boardwalk said they saw something—maybe Jesse’s hands or feet breaking the surface—but just for a second. A carpenter nearby swore he saw Jesse raise both arms, like he was calling for help, and then he was gone.

Just like that.

What Washed Ashore

The next day, something horrifying turned up on the beach.

A human arm.

It had been ripped clean from the shoulder. Even worse, there were bite marks. But the most telling clue was a scar on the hand—left by a hatchet injury Jesse had suffered a few weeks before. There was no doubt. It was his.

His body was never found.

Also See: South Jersey’s Ghost Ship

What Really Happened?

The town couldn’t stop talking.

• Shark attack? The bite marks and missing body had people convinced a shark got him—even though this was a full decade before the famous 1916 shark attacks in New Jersey.
• Cramp? Some said Jesse had complained of a leg cramp the night before. Maybe he just seized up at the worst moment?
• Something more sinister? Not everyone was convinced it was an accident. The witnesses had mixed accounts, and nobody actually saw what dragged him under.

And then there’s the biggest question of all: why did only his arm come back?

A Mystery That Still Haunts Wildwood

On July 21st, Jesse’s arm was brought back to his mother in Vineland. His father had already passed away. With no body to bury, no funeral was held.

Now, over a century later, Jesse Hunt’s disappearance remains one of Wildwood’s strangest unsolved mysteries. No official cause of death was ever confirmed. And whatever happened that day, the ocean’s not talking.

This is a story that the Wildwood Video Archive found while researching old newspaper archives and was published via the Five Mile Beach Journal on July 25th, 1906.

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