REHOBOTH BEACH, De - The Nanticoke Indians used to camp along the shores of the lake that is only several hundred yards from the sands of Rehoboth Beach.
It provided the Indians fresh water while they would gather shellfish from the Atlantic Ocean. Later American colonists also relied on Silver Lake for their fresh water.
During this era, the body of water was actually one lake. It was later separated into two when pollution from a tannery located at Lake Comegys.
During the War of 1812, the commander of the American forces in Lewes, Col. Samuel Boyer Davis, blocked access to Silver Lake to keep the fresh water from falling into the hands of the invading British forces.
In 1933, the Delaware General Assembly established Lake Comegys and Silver Lake as state bird refuges
In 2004 Rehoboth Beach state representative Pete Schwartzkopf helped pass a resolution recognizing Silver Lake as the closest freshwater lake to the Atlantic Ocean in the United States.