Loading map...

1944 Map of Rio Grande

Name: 1944 Topographic Map of Rio Grande
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1949
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1949

About this map

The Wildwood US Naval Air Station anchors the southern portion of this landscape during the mid-1940s, a period when military preparedness reshaped the Cape May County shoreline. To the north, the Dias Creek Army Reservation further signals the era’s defense activity along the Delaware Bay. Between these installations, a network of coastal settlements and family-named landmarks including Nummytown, Kimseytown, and Del Haven illustrate the region's transition from traditional maritime life to a mid-century residential pattern.

Infrastructure of the period is defined by the Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Lines, which connects the inland hub of Rio Grande to the surrounding marshlands. Local civic life is centered at sites like the Fishing Creek School, while the coastline is dotted with small landings and points of interest such as King Crab Ldg and Pierces Point. This survey captures the peninsula as a working landscape of coastal roads like Shun Pike and Bay Shore Road before late-century development fully transformed the Cape May interior.