Matawan Creek is a creek and partially a tidal inlet of

Raritan Bay Raritan Bay is a bay located at the southern portion of Lower New York Bay between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey and is part of the New York Bight. The bay is bounded on the northwest by New York's Staten Island, on the west by P ...

. It lies in

Monmouth County, New Jersey Monmouth County () is a county located on the coast of central New Jersey. The county is part of the New York metropolitan area and is situated along the northern half of the Jersey Shore. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population w ...

, United States, across from

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull an ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Course

Matawan Creek's main flow begins as Bakers Brook in Marlboro Township, Monmouth County, north of the intersection of Tennent and Woolleytown Roads. From this point it flows northward through Marlboro and Aberdeen Townships to a point near the Middlesex County line, where it turns in a northeasterly direction.

Birch Swamp Brook A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 to ...

enters from the right; below this confluence is the impoundment,

Lake Lefferts Lake Lefferts (Latitude: 40.414552, Longitude: -74.234589) is an engineered lake in Matawan, New Jersey. The lake is the result of the construction in 1928 of Lake Lefferts Dam, which captured and stored the flow of Matawan Creek. The lake is h ...

. The section of Bakers Brook in Aberdeen Township is also known as Matawan Brook. Lake Lefferts lies in Aberdeen Township and Matawan Borough and passes under County Route 516 and

New Jersey Route 34 Route 34 is a state highway in the central part of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The route runs from an intersection with Route 35 and Route 70 (the former Brielle Circle) in Wall Township, Monmouth County north to an intersection with U.S. ...

. Below the dam at Ravine Drive Matawan Creek becomes a tidal estuary, meandering through a

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...

to its mouth. Here it receives the flow of Gravelly Brook, Clapboard Creek and Mohingson Creek and reenters Aberdeen Township. This section was formerly navigable to commercial shipping. Between the

Garden State Parkway The Garden State Parkway (GSP) is a controlled-access toll road that stretches the north–south length of eastern New Jersey from the state's southernmost tip near Cape May to the New York state line at Montvale. Its name refers to New Jersey ...

and

New Jersey Route 35 Route 35 is a state highway in the U.S. state of New Jersey, primarily traveling through the easternmost parts of Middlesex, Monmouth, and Ocean counties. It runs from the entrance to Island Beach State Park in Berkeley Township, Ocean County ...

the creek becomes navigable for small private craft and some residences fronting upon the creek have private docks. Downstream of Route 35 are several marinas, although since both the bridge at Route 35 and that at County Route 6 have a low clearance, vessels with masts must remain downstream of County Route 6. From Route 35 to the mouth Matawan Creek forms the boundary between Aberdeen Township and Keyport Borough. There are no further bridges downstream of County Route 6 and Matawan Creek empties into Keyport Harbor, an arm of

. Although not a tributary of Matawan Creek, Luppatatong Creek enters Keyport Harbor very near to the mouth of Matawan Creek.

Etymology

Matawan Creek derives its name from Matawan Neck, situated between Matawan Creek and Whale Creek. During the 17th and 18th centuries this was the plantation of

Thomas Rudyard Thomas Rudyard (1640 – buried 2 November 1692) was a Quaker lawyer in London before moving to America and being appointed deputy governor of East Jersey and the first Attorney General of the English Province of New York, the predecessor positi ...

and later

Andrew Bowne Captain Andrew Bowne (c. 1638 - c. 1708) was an American colonial politician and jurist, who served in various capacities in both New York and New Jersey. Biography A son of William and Ann Bowne, Andrew Bowne was born circa 1638 in Salem, Massac ...

. This land is now Cliffwood and

Cliffwood Beach Cliffwood is an unincorporated community located within Aberdeen Township in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. The area is served as United States Postal Service ZIP code 07721. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population f ...

in Aberdeen Township. It may originate from the Southern Unami ''Matawonge'', "bad riverbank" or "bad hill", a possible reference to bluffs along Raritan Bay which were subject to erosion and collapse prior to the construction of a

seawall A seawall (or sea wall) is a form of coastal defense constructed where the sea, and associated coastal processes, impact directly upon the landforms of the coast. The purpose of a seawall is to protect areas of human habitation, conservation ...

in the 1970s. Another possible source is ''Matawan'', Northern Unami for "bad fog", which may have referred to

fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus, and is heavily influ ...

generated on Raritan Bay.

Geology

William Bullock Clark William Bullock Clark (December 15, 1860 – July 27, 1917), was an American geologist. Early life William Bullock Clark was born on December 15, 1860, at Brattleboro, Vermont, to Helen (née Bullock) and Barna Atherton Clark. Clark had private ...

named the

Matawan Formation The Matawan Formation is a geologic formation in Maryland and New Jersey. It preserves fossils dating back to the Cretaceous period. A description of the formation in Maryland from the USGS ''Tolochester Folio'' (1917) follows: :The formation co ...

after exposures on the creek and nearby.

History

During the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, the creek was made infamous due to the

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimo ...

attacks on July 12, 1916, occurring 1.5 miles (2.5 km) from the ocean. A shark killed 11-year-old Lester Stillwell and his 24-year-old would-be rescuer Stanley Fisher and severely injured 14-year-old Joseph Dunn later that same day. This account, in addition to shark attacks in both Beach Haven and Spring Lake, were the inspiration for the popular novel ''

Jaws Jaws or Jaw may refer to: Anatomy * Jaw, an opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth ** Mandible, the lower jaw Arts, entertainment, and media * Jaws (James Bond), a character in ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' and ''Moonraker'' * ...

'', written by

Peter Benchley Peter Bradford Benchley (May 8, 1940 – February 11, 2006) was an American author, screenwriter, and ocean activist. He is known for his bestselling novel ''Jaws'' and co-wrote its film adaptation with Carl Gottlieb. Several more of his works w ...

, who in turn co-wrote the screenplay for the blockbuster film of the same name directed by

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spie ...

. Benchley, however, has denied this.

Tributaries

* Bakers Brook *

* Clapboard Creek * Gravelly Brook ** Watson's Brook * Mohingson Creek **Joe's Hole

References