World War II-era grenades found in Cape Henlopen State Park

Taylor Goebel | The Daily Times

Show Caption Hide Caption Jack Markell speaks at the opening of the Fort Miles Artillery Park Delaware Gov. Jack Markell speaks at the opening of the new Fort Miles Artillery Park on the 71st anniversary of the Japanese surrender to end World War II.

Three explosive ordnances, deemed pineapple-style grenades by the Army Corps of Engineers, were found over a two-day period near Fort Miles at Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes, according to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

A visitor was in the area Tuesday and discovered one grenade at Cape Henlopen, a state park known for its World War II-era observation towers, according to Chief Wayne Kline of the Division of Parks and Recreation.

The grenade was heavily corroded from years of weather and exposure to the elements. Delaware State Police's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit couldn't determine whether it was a training item or a live grenade used by the military. The unit rendered it safe, Kline said.

The Army Corps of Engineers visited the same area Wednesday and found two more explosive ordnances. The Dover Air Force Base X-rayed the grenades and again couldn't identify the grenades' purpose from all the sand, rain and time to which they had been exposed. Both grenades were also destroyed, Kline said.

The three grenades were discovered far from the beach side west of the dunes, in a somewhat isolated area around Fort Miles, Kline said.

It's not unusual to find decades-old explosive ordnances in a park used during World War II, Kline said, but unlike the most recently recovered grenades, they are often found near the beach, where wind and sand dunes can uncover (and recover) history like a perpetually-shifting time capsule.

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