Illustration: Jakob Hinrichsa-
New Jersey has long had border problems. For example, until 1834 and a Supreme Court decision, New York considered its border with New Jersey not the middle of the Hudson, but the high water mark on the Jersey Shore. Had that continued, half of each New Jersey beach would have been New York’s.
But other border issues have endured. There is a small chunk of Delaware in South Jersey, near the town of Pennsville. The story dates back to 1682, when William Penn, wishing to affirm a border between Pennsylvania and Delaware, received approval from the British crown for a curving state line that continued across the Delaware River and then followed the Jersey Shore for 12 miles. Elsewhere, the river was divided down the middle, but here, it was all Delaware’s.
Nobody paid attention to this anomaly until the Army Corps of Engineers began dredging the river in this area more than half a century ago, dumping Delaware silt along the Jersey shore and creating what is now a grassy piece of land 1.5 miles long and half a mile wide belonging to Delaware. Since patrolling it is impractical for Delaware, it has become a place where drugs are freely traded, teenage alcohol drinking abounds, and ruined automobiles are abandoned.
Unlicensed by Delaware, New Jersey hunters are also attracted to the spot, in season and out. In 1987, a hunter died there, ten feet from the New Jersey line. New Jersey police expected Delaware authorities to attend to the matter, which they did, reluctantly. Since then, the bodies of suicides jumping from the Delaware Memorial Bridge invariably float to this same spot, again engaging less-than-enthusiastic Delaware authorities.
One would think, as a practical matter, Delaware would happily turn over this bit of land to New Jersey, but state pride has prevented them from doing so. New Jersey has no particular interest in the land, but doesn’t appreciate Delaware’s presence. The case has appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court three times. Each time, applying the 1682 royal decree, the court has ruled that the land is Delaware’s. In the most recent case, in 2005, two justices, Samuel Alito and the late Antonin Scalia, both Jersey boys, dissented. (So much for Supreme Court judicial objectivity.)
Chief Justice Roberts declared that, come what may, the Supreme Court would never again consider this less-than-consequential case. So, a piece of Delaware remains in New Jersey. This hasn’t stopped the two states from gently quarreling. Delaware has threatened, tongue in cheek, to send the National Guard to protect its possession. New Jersey, also joking, has said that if Delaware does that, it will send the Battleship New Jersey downriver from its berth in Camden to settle the matter.
Surely, a reader with musical talent will see that we have all the ingredients here of a comic opera.
Michael Aaron Rockland is the author of some 16 books; his latest, The Other Jersey Shore, came out in May.
[RELATED: Exploring Other Jersey Shores]
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