Loving history, especially here in Cape May County, I was told some years ago that somewhere in Cape May there sits a bunker from World War I. For the most part, people know of the many World War II buildings and things in our county from the concrete ship to the lookout towers but not much CMC history from World War I is told so I wanted to change that.
In 2016 and in later years there was an article floating around about a bunker from World War I sitting deep in the woods. There had been some photos out there but not any video.
Cape May’s Abandoned WWI Bunker
This website was created with the idea of preserving history. We do that in many ways. One is from buying old reels of film and converting them digitally and sharing them with you online. Another way we do this is by filming and documenting.
After a few tries on trying to find the World War I bunker I finally found it and took my camera along to document it.
While I go into more detail in the video here is the history Cliff Notes.
Just before the US entered the Great War (WWI) they started getting prepared and trained. With Cape May being a prime location for travel from the Ocean to Philadelphia, the Navy decided here would be a great place for a navy base.
The Navy took over two locations. Camp Wissahickon, where the currently Coast Guard Base sits now and the Wissahickon Barracks just at the foot of the Garden State Parkway. At that time the Parkway wasn’t even a thought and instead there was a farm there owned by Henry Ford. He leased the land to the US Government for $1.
On that location several buildings were built including bunkers to store ammunitions. The barracks were used until the end of the war and after the building’s parts were sold off and the land given back to Ford. Ford never did use that land and the remaining buildings burnt down.
Fast forward to 2016 when a few historians went through some old post cards and rediscovered this Cape May history. Now it’s time for you to discover it!
So those were the Cliff Notes now it’s time for the video.
Just a note, stay to the end as I will elaborate more after I get back to my house.
