Summer Speaker Event - "Lost Monmouth County"

My new book Lost Monmouth published by The History Press contains over 60 narratives on places throughout the county that have disappeared or been extensively changed that are grouped in categories that include business, transportation, domestic life, military, leisure and recreation, along with public life. While most subjects are gone, preservation is represented by a major factory that is now a shopping mecca, a resettlement community now a cultured residential area and former schools now community centers. Nostalgia is mixed with significant history.

There was no end of potential subjects to choose from, a scenario that is likely present in any long-developed county. Thus, selection was a mix of what I thought would resonate with readers, what struck me as significant and subjects that needed amplification or correction. The cover is a fine example, the c.1960s remnants of a Long Branch shorefront housing colony built by Nate Salsbury, the promoter of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Its history is rife with rumor and half-truths. I tried to set the record straight. Now the one house that survives is the headquarters for the Monmouth County Park System’s Oceanfront Park, a popular beach. The brief presentation omitted pictorial selections from the contents as the talk was planned as a guide to others who may wish to write a similar volume in the popular “lost” series.