Download or read book Barnegat Light written by Reilly Platten Sharp for the Barnegat Light Historical Society & Museum and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2019 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the history of Barnegat Light and journey through time with Author and Curator for the Barnegat Light Historical Society & Museum, Reilly Platten Sharp. At the mouth of Barnegat Inlet, Native Americans, whalers, pirates, fishermen, and revolutionaries once lazed, fished, fought, and died on Barnegat Light's sands before modern progress and big-city developers tried to build the next Atlantic City. Treacherous shoals just offshore claimed the lives of thousands of immigrants seeking new starts in America before the current lighthouse was designed in 1856 by the later victorious general of Gettysburg, George Meade. The Ashley House, one of the first shore resort hotels in the country, went up in 1821. In the 1880s, Benjamin Archer and William Bailey of Camden built bigger hotels, cottages, and roads in town, even bringing the railroad. Barnegat Light never became a bustling tourist town like her developers dreamed, but a close-knit community of fishermen, lifesavers and their families have endured for generations to call the still small town of Barnegat Light home.