The Baja: Why a strange piece of land near Pennsville belongs to Delaware instead of New Jersey

This story was initially published on Oct. 18, 2019.

The Delaware River is the official border between the First State and New Jersey, right? 

Yes and no. 

Unbeknownst to many residents, the two states actually share two land borders, one of which is nearly 2 miles long. 

Not only does Delaware own a small chunk of Artificial Island, where the Hope Creek Nuclear Power Plant is, but there's a weird swath of land just outside Pennsville, New Jersey, that belongs to the Diamond State. 

The entire thing is only about 580 acres, but it and rights to the nearby Delaware River have been the subject of not one, but three U.S. Supreme Court cases, the most recent of which concluded in 2008. 

Local residents call it "The Point" or "The Baja." 

“It's weird, and it has been weird for a long time," Pennsville Mayor Robert McDade said of property's existence. "Most people wouldn't even know that it's out there." 

So why is the tiny piece of land such a big deal? And why does it exist in the first place? 

The answers to both questions are surprisingly complex. 

How was the border established?

The answer to the second question, which we'll tackle first, lies with Delaware's northern border, which is curved instead of a straight line. 

Its existence dates from a deed to William Penn from the Duke of York on Aug. 24, 1682, which granted Penn all the land west of the Delaware River within a 12-mile compass circle beginning at the courthouse in New Castle. 

Unlike other territorial boundaries, however, where rivers are essentially split in half between two states, the deed gave Penn rights to the entire waterway up to the low-tide mark on the east side. 

FIND OUT MORE: The story of how Delaware got its shape

Originally, that also gave Delaware ownership of a marshy wetland just outside Pennsville, which was designated a federally protected bird habitat in the 1930s.

It was called Killcohook National Wildlife Refuge. 

But then, in the first part of the 20th century, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began dredging the river and depositing silt at Killcohoook, eventually turning it into solid land. 

Tim Boyle, a spokesman for the Corps, said the process took several decades.

Dredging helps keep the river deep enough for shipping traffic, and during and after World War II preserving nature took second priority to finding an easy place to dump silt and mud, according to The News Journal's archives. 

The wetland was transformed into fields of tall plume grass and dusty hills, and Killcohook's status as a refuge was revoked in 1998. Conservationists cried foul and raised concerns about chemicals and pollution from the mounded dredge spoils. 

Thousands of geese, mallards, ducks, teal and pheasants were replaced by empty beer bottles and junked cars. On a recent Thursday, the only sound one could hear at The Baja was that of the wind racing through invasive phragmites, a species of reed that crowds out native vegetation. 

The New York Times, which wrote about the dredge-spoil dumping in 1985, said the failed wildlife area was perhaps one of New Jersey's "ugliest ecological secrets." 

Ownership and management of Killcohook was ''a real ball of wax," the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told the newspaper.

The land is part of Delaware, is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and has been managed as hunting grounds by wildlife agencies in both New Jersey and Delaware. 

"It was a bastard within the national wildlife system," an official later told The News Journal in 1998. "It really has been kicked back and forth between its parents." 

Today, Boyle said the land isn't used for anything specific. McDade, Pennsville's mayor, said dredge spoils are still routinely dumped there. 

The Army Corps of Engineers has since become more environmentally conscious and uses dredge spoils to create or restore wildlife habitats, replenish beaches and more, according to its website. 

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What were the court cases about? 

New Jersey has long argued that the small strip of land created by dredging shouldn't be Delaware's in the first place. 

There have been three Supreme Court cases between the two states over its ownership and rights to the Delaware River. 

The first was resolved in 1905 with a compact between the two states that addressed fishing rights but didn't define the border. The second lawsuit, in 1934, concluded that Delaware owned “the river and the subaqueous soil” up to the low tide mark. 

A third case in 2007 was sparked by a liquid natural gas plant. In 2005, a fight erupted between the two states over British Petroleum's then-proposal to build a $500 million LNG import facility just across the river from Claymont.

Under the plan, New Jersey would have built a delivery pier that jutted into Delaware's territorial waters. While New Jersey saw jobs and economic development, Delawareans feared potential explosions of the condensed fuel. 

In 2006, Sen. Harris McDowell, D-Wilmington, co-sponsored a bill, likely in jest, that would have authorized then-Gov. Ruth Ann Miner to send the Delaware National Guard across the river to physically block construction of the port's bulkheads and piers.

New Jersey jokingly threatened to bring the Battleship New Jersey down. 

By 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court intervened, ruling that Delaware's laws could, in fact, prevent the plan from progressing.

SOME BACKGROUND: Energy company says it's bringing LNG port to the Delaware River

No man's land

While Delaware hasn't ceded the small strip of land outside Pennsville to New Jersey, it has relied on the other state to help maintain order there. 

It's a bit of a no man's land, referred to by some local residents as "The Baja," Pennsville police Chief Allen J. Cummings said. He's not sure what inspired the nickname but said it's been referred to as that since he was a kid. 

In the past, New Jersey police had no jurisdiction over the property, which means people would go there to commit crimes, according to a 1990 Baltimore Sun story.

Teens could do drugs and drink there without fear of arrest. 

Then, in 1987, Pennsville police found the body of a 45-year-old hunter who had been shot in the head. 

The department had to call Delaware coroner's office to pick up the body because no one in New Jersey was authorized to do it. The man was only 10 feet over the state line, authorities said. 

The death, which was eventually ruled a suicide, highlighted jurisdictional issues over the land. Eventually, the two states agreed that the Pennsville Police Department could enforce laws on the property. 

That doesn't mean Cummings and his officers patrol The Baja, the police chief said. They only go out there if they get a call about something. 

"We’ve had a few fatalities up there, kids on four-wheelers or motorcycles or dirtbikes," Cummings said. 

The mayor said for a time, after word got out that the land was a good place for off-roading, people were coming from nearby states like Pennsylvania with big trailers full of ATVs. 

Accesses to the property are blocked off by iron gates, but they can be circumvented by small recreational vehicles, Cummings said. There are fewer off-road vehicles now, thanks to enforcement efforts, but teens likely still use the area to party. 

Even so, it's better than it used to be when he was in high school. He said the department hadn't gotten any calls from the area in a couple of years, though if you walk along the shoreline there are signs of recent bonfires and drinking. 

“We don’t have to drive up there and check it every night," Cummings said. "It's not like that anymore." 

The department also gets calls about human remains found in The Baja. Sometimes, when someone takes their own life by jumping off the Delaware Memorial Bridge, they will wash up on its shores. 

Years ago when Cummings was a detective, a child even found a human skull on the beach, which he brought into the police department in a milk crate. 

Near the site it was found, police found a pair of pants with a set of car keys in the pocket, which were matched to a vehicle found abandoned near the bridge. 

When there are fatalities or human remains are found in the water or the land belonging to Delaware, Pennsville officers call the Delaware State Police Department, which recovers the bodies and heads up any subsequent investigations.

"It's an interesting place," Cummings said. "There's a lot of history there." 

Jessica Bies finds the news of the moment and brings it to you with local context and perspective. What have you heard people talking about Email bholveck@delawareonline.com with story ideas.