The History Girl

The Return of the Shad – A Lambertville, NJ Tradition Written By NJ Historian Each year like clockwork, the shad return to the Delaware River to spawn. It is an ancient cycle first observed by the Lenni Lenape and has continued ever since. Today, in Lambertville, New Jersey the townspeople commemorate the arrival of the shad the last weekend in April with an annual Shad Festival. However, despite settlement in Lambertville dating to the 1750s, the festival’s first year was not until 1981. At the Shad Festival Lambertville is a town built around the Delaware River and the Delaware and Raritan Canal. During the eighteenth century, the city was named after various operators of ferries across the river to Pennsylvania, ultimately becoming known as Coryell's Ferry, after Emanuel Coryell who owned the ferry. The city became known as Lambertville in 1814 when the post office was established, in honor of John Lambert, a local resident, who had served as United States Senator and...