Matawan Creek is a creek and partially a tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies in the east central sector of New Jersey across from Staten Island, New York.
During the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, the creek was made infamous due to horrific shark attacks on July 12, 1916, occurring 15 miles (25 km) from the ocean. A shark or sharks killed 12-year-old Lester Stillwell and his 24-year-old would-be rescuer Fisher "Stanley" Fisher and severely injured 14-year-old Joseph Dunn later that same day.
This account, in addition to a number of other shark attacks in the local area, are believed to have been the inspiration for the popular novel Jaws, written by Peter Benchley, who in turn co-wrote the screenplay for the blockbuster film of the same name directed by Steven Spielberg. Benchley was a New Jersey native, and had done research on the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 previously.
Famous quotes containing the word creek:
“It might be seen by what tenure men held the earth. The smallest stream is mediterranean sea, a smaller ocean creek within the land, where men may steer by their farm bounds and cottage lights. For my own part, but for the geographers, I should hardly have known how large a portion of our globe is water, my life has chiefly passed within so deep a cove. Yet I have sometimes ventured as far as to the mouth of my Snug Harbor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)