Del Fisher competed in several races, and won the Monmouth County half-mile. (Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
On January 25, 1905, readers of the Red Bank Register read about an event many of them had attended four days earlier.
And in this, the first entry of redbankgreen‘s new “Throwbacks” feature, you can, too.
Sheridan Hotel owner Fred Frick, below, organized the races and served as starter. Â (Click to enlarge.)
Hard as it may be to imagine in our ice-starved era, Red Bank’s annual Ice Carnival drew 8,000 people to the frozen Navesink River – then called the North Shrewsbury – to watch ice-skating races featuring “all of the crack amateurs of the country,” the Register reported.
“The trolley cars and steam railroads brought them here by the hundreds” for races on a quarter-mile oval marked out in the middle of the river opposite Throckmorton’s dock.
Borough resident Del Fisher was clearly skating his heart out that day, competing in multiple races. He was “the only local entry who succeed in winning any of the races,” the half-mile for the championship of Monmouth County, the Register reported.
Alas, “the trotting races which were announced to take place during the afternoon could not be held on account of the thin ice,” according to the account.
“Throwbacks” will serve up occasional reflections on Red Bank’s rich past, aided by reporting in the Red Bank Register. The now-defunct newspaper’s entire archive is available through the Red Bank Public LIbrary website.
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