The Pinelands of southern New Jersey, often called the Pine Barrens, comprises about one million acres of woodland, waterways, meadows and farmland. Rich in natural resources, the Pinelands has offered a refuge and a way of life to its many inhabitants and visitors since the ice age receded over 10,000 years ago.

Man has inhabited the Pinelands for at least 2,000 years, although archaeologists have found evidence of human occupation as far back as the end of the ice age. At the time of the first European settlement of the Pinelands in the mid-seventeenth century, members of the Lenape tribe, a group of the Delaware Indians, had been living along the ocean, bays, and rivers for several centuries. The Lenapes fished in the oceans, bays, and rivers of the Pinelands; farmed and raised animals; and hunted and foraged for food and other necessities in the woodlands. Their lifestyle left the natural features of the Pinelands - wooded areas, swamps, meadows and bays - largely unchanged. They shared their traditional ways of using and adapting to the environment of the Pinelands with the early European settlers, who learned how to cultivate maize, forage for food and other necessities, and even control the pesky South Jersey mosquito. Most of the Lenapes died of smallpox and other diseases against which they had no immunity, as a result of their contact with the Europeans who brought these diseases. Other members of the tribe moved out of the area or were settled on one of the earliest Indian reservations, Brotherton reservation, which was later renamed Indian Mills.

Today people of the Pinelands have a mixed culture and history that began with European settlements in the mid-seventeenth century. The first Europeans to come to the Pinelands were Swedes, who settled along the Delaware Bay in 1638. The Swedes were soon followed by colonists from New England and New York. During the next two hundred years, Dutch, English, Northern Europeans, and Blacks joined the region's early settlers, establishing villages along the rivers and coastal regions. These people were farmers, hunters, woodsmen, seafarers, boatbuilders, fishermen, and carpenters who used the natural resources that their environment offered. The major economic activities of this time period, such as shipbuilding and sailmaking, were related to the maritime industry.

By the beginning of the eighteenth century, lumbering had become an important industry of the heavily forested Pinelands. Sawmills, which processed raw wood into lumber with water-driven machinery, were built along the banks of rivers and streams in wooded areas. For the next two hundred years, wood was essential to the development of rural industry. Atlantic white cedar, the most valuable Pinelands wood, was used for boatbuilding and shingle manufacture; pitch pine was used to fuel the glass and iron industries which developed mid-eighteenth century; pine and oak were used for house construction and the manufacture of containers and machine parts. The use of wood was tied to the development of the rural Pinelands industries and resulted in the most dramatic change to the landscape in the region's history. Forests were cleared for farms and villages and large numbers of trees were cut to provide timber for shipbuilding, house construction, and for local as well as international export. Small villages grew up around sawmills, boatyards, and lumberyards. These villages were the early beginnings of communities such as Browns Mills, Wading River, Batsto, Tuckahoe, Dennisville, and Port Elizabeth.

Iron production was introduced to the Pinelands in the middle of the eighteenth century. The combination of plentiful natural resources, such as wood and water, and the capital of wealthy Quaker industrialists served to make the manufacture of iron in the Pinelands a major industry. The southern New Jersey iron industry began in 1730, when the Richards' family from Philadelphia bought up vast quantities of woodland for their iron works, which required tremendous amounts of wood to fuel the furnaces. In addition to wood, the iron works of this region relied upon other natural resources of the Pinelands: bog iron, found in and around spongy swamps called "spungs"; water, which powered machinery; forests, which provided the wood for the charcoal that fueled the furnaces of the forges; sand, for castings and insulation; and lime, found in oyster shells along the rivers and bays, for flux. This iron industry supplied the new nation with munitions for two wars, as well as with stoves, hollowware, kettles, sash weights, firebacks, tools, horseshoes, wagon tires and ship parts for over a century.

In the same way that towns and villages grew up around the sawmills and boatyards of the Pinelands, self-sufficient villages known as "plantations'' grew up around the iron works. An iron plantation consisted of thousands of acres of wooded land, at the heart of which were the iron works and the village that surrounded them. An iron works included an iron furnace, which produced the raw product known as pig iron; forges, which refined and resmelted the pig iron into wrought iron or "bar iron"; and charcoal pits, which produced the fuel that fired the furnace and the forge. The village was comprised of workers houses, a sawmill, a grist mill, a store, a school, a church, and a post office. At the center of the village of an iron "plantation" was the mansion of the owner of the iron works, who was known as an "iron master." The workforce of an iron plantation included raisers, who excavated the ore out of the bogs; charcoal burners who made the fuel for the furnace; lumbermen who cut the wood for charcoal; teamsters who hauled the raw materials to the furnace and the finished product to river landings where it would be transported to far-off destinations; and the workers and craftsmen who transformed the ore into its final. product. Batsto, Martha, Howell, and Hanover were sites of major southern New Jersey iron works. Batsto, the location of the Richards' iron empire, was bought in the late nineteenth century by Joseph Wharton, a Philadelphia industrialist who planned to sell its rich water supply to Philadelphia. When his plans fell through, Wharton sold the property to the State of New Jersey. Many of Batsto's original buildings are preserved today, as an open-air museum and historical village in the Wharton Tract.

The manufacture of iron required a huge amount of wood, which converted into charcoal, fueled the iron furnaces and forges. The association of charcoal with iron manufacture dates back to the fourteenth century in Europe, and charcoaling itself is an ancient occupation, dating to 3,400 B.C. in Egypt.

Charcoal and its production in the Pinelands relied upon the seemingly inexhaustible supply of wood, as well as upon sand. It was manufactured by slow-burning pitch pine for almost two weeks in a hand- made "pit." A charcoal pit was actually a cone-shaped construction of cordwood, turf, and sand, which formed an air-tight seal around the pit.

In earlier days, charcoaling was a large-scale operation, requiring several men to build and fuel six to ten pits, arranged in a ring, which burned simultaneously. Woodchoppers cut the cordwood for the construction of the pit; setters constructed the pits; scalpers placed the turf floats on top; blackers covered the floats with sand; firemen watched the burning pits and controlled their heat; drawers raked the floats off the pits; and teamsters transported the wood to the pits and the charcoal away from them. Colliers lived in temporary log cabins which resembled the pits. "Watch cabins," some of which were portable, provided shelter for the firemen during times when the pits were being fired.

Later, when wide-spread use of charcoal as a fuel declined, one man did all the jobs necessary for the production. Some of the tall tales told in the Pines were told among colliers as they worked at charcoaling. Charcoal was last produced in the Pinelands in the 1940's, and has been replaced by modern commercial methods of manufacture.

The production of southern New Jersey iron declined in the mid- nineteenth century, when anthracite (hard coal) was discovered near magnetic or rock iron ore in Pennsylvania. This discovery and the proximity of a high-heat fuel to the harder rock iron ore led to a new method of iron production known as the blast method. The more efficient blast method of iron manufacture combined with the use of rock iron ore in the manufacture of steel replaced bog iron, both in the method of production and the usefulness of the product.

Both iron and glass manufacture drew upon resources that were plentiful in the Pinelands and which were found in close proximity to one another. The manufacture of glass developed in the Pinelands in a manner similar to the development of the iron industry. Glass was made from silica, which was found naturally in the sandy soil of the Pinelands; from lime, which was imported from nearby quarries in New York and Pennsylvania; soda; and from fragments of blown glass. The mixture, called a "batch", was melted at a high beat, fueled by cordwood from pitch pine, and cooled with water from nearby streams and rivers. Hand-carved wooden molds made from the wood of local trees gave shape to many glass products. The iron rods used to transport molten glass from one place to another were provided by local iron foundries. Salt hay, which grew on the salt meadows of the Pinelands, was used as a packing material. Because the manufacture of glass required the close proximity of wood, water, and sand, it was not unusual for owners of failing ironworks, in the mid-nineteenth century, to try to substitute glass manufacture at the same site as the defunct iron works. Batsto's owner, Jesse Richards, built two glass factories on either side of the Batsto River when the iron works became obsolete.

Glassmaking began in the Pinelands in 1739, around the same time as the iron industry began, and continued production into the twentieth century. The first "glass house" was built by Caspar Wistar on Alloways Creek. In the nineteenth century, there were more than twenty glass houses located at Atco, Barnegat, Batsto, Bulltown, Clementon, Crowleytown, Dennisville, Egg Harbor, Estellville, and Green Bank. Most of the glass products manufactured in the Pinelands were bottles and window light, or window glass. Some cut glass and tableware were also made.

Several traditions grew up in the glass houses that produced some forms distinctive to the Pinelands. Glass canes, paper weights, and " witches balls," (hollow globes with pieces of string inside), were associated with folk custom, values, and superstitions. Paper weights were often test of the glassblower's skill, and incorporated designs which frequently symbolized local and family values and customs. Among those designs associated with southern New Jersey are "devil's fire," the "mushroom," and the "rose."

Customs that grew up in individual glass shops resulted in the production of unique items. An engraved decanter was presented to each girl on her sixteenth birthday. In other shops, elaborately etched certificates were awarded to apprentices who had completed their training.

In many glass houses, glass-blowers created useful or decorative glass objects such as sugar bowls, pitchers, rolling pins and vases, or batons, canes, hats, lilies, and knitting needles. This work, done before or after the work day, became known as "tempo" 'work. Many skilled glass blowers left larger glass factories to start their own small businesses. Among them are the Clevenger Brothers, who reproduced colonial bottles and flasks, and Theodore Ramp. Ramp's distinctive style of glass craft is recognizable in the pleated edges of glass vessels, optical effects, and swirled and fluted motifs.

The 1850's marked the beginning of a new phase of development in the Pinelands, with the advent of the railroad. Before the railroad or the automobile, the major types of transportation in the Pinelands as elsewhere, were boat and horse-drawn wagon. Boats transported the products of early rural industry - lumber, iron, and glass - to local and foreign markets. The southern New Jersey version of the farm wagon hauled iron products to the furnace, salt hay to glass and paper factories, cranberries to the sorting houses, and agricultural produce to market. It resembled the Conestoga wagon of Pennsylvania, which carried pioneers west. Both were based on the Dutch wagon, which has smaller
wheels in the f ront than in the back. Local materials and products - wood for the frame, iron for the wheels, and cloth for the canopy which sometimes covered the frame were used to make the farm wagon.

New technology and the wave of immigration that began in the United States in the 1850's brought settlers and new industries to the Pinelands. Railroads both stimulated the economic growth of the southern portion of the Pinelands, and contributed to the temporary decline of the northern portion. The major railroad lines ran east and west, connecting Philadelphia with Atlantic City and Cape May. A network of minor rail lines was built around this area, making it possible for agriculture, real estate, and tourism to develop into major industries.

At the same time, the rural industries that had flourished during the first half of the nineteenth century declined during the second half. Technologies introduced during the Industrial Revolution gradually rendered the methods and materials that had made the Pinelands industrially viable, obsolete. With the boom period that had populated towns and villages throughout the Pinelands now over, many people moved to towns and cities to find new work. During this time period, those who remained in the Pinelands relied upon the earliest occupations - fishing, hunting, trapping and boatbuilding - to sustain them. To these were added plant gathering, cranberrying, blueberrying, and upland farming. This pattern of life continued into the twentieth century, when suburbanization, the leisure industry, and the military brought new jobs, new lifestyles, and new people to the Pinelands.

One of the most important economic and cultural changes to the Pinelands took place in the 1850's with the growth of agriculture in the region south of the Mullica River. In Colonial and pre-revolutionary times, agriculture in the Pinelands was a part-time activity, limited to the growth of rye and maize. However, in the mid-nineteenth century, The growth of the rail system in the southern portion of the Pinelands contributed to the development of Hammonton, Vineland, and Egg Harbor as agricultural communities.Italian, German, and Jewish immigrants who came to this country during the wave of immigration from Europe that began in the 1850's settled in these new agricultural communities and established farms. Crops that were introduced to the Pinelands during this time were tomatoes, sweet potatoes, peaches, apples, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, and cranberries. Viniculture, or the growing of grapes for wine-making, was traditional to the Germans and Italians who settled in the Pinelands, and they established wineries that are still in existence today. Improved transportation in the southern part of the region made it possible to transport crops in large quantities over long distances at high speed, which helped farming to become profitable activity. Crops were shipped at the Bridgeton market by boat, and at Hammonton and Vineland, by rail. The rail network which allowed the southern portion of the Pinelands to develop when rural industry declined, did not reach north of the Mullica River. Villages and towns in the north that had grown up around iron and glass works were abandoned and became ghost towns. Real estate speculation in this area failed. The woods, swamps, and bogs returned to their natural state and became the domain again of lumberers, colliers, hunters, and gatherers. Today, farming is an important economic activity of the Pinelands. People who work on the farms include the owners and their family members, local residents, and migrant workers. Many migrant and seasonal workers who originally came to New Jersey's Pinelands only to work on the farms, returned to their homes after the harvest. Eventually, however, many settled in agricultural towns and villages. Italian farm workers at the beginning of this century, and, more recently, Puerto Rican farm workers made permanent homes in the agricultural communities of the Pinelands. The Puerto Rican communities in Hammonton, Vineland, and Woodbine are examples of communities that grew with the agricultural industry of the Pinelands. After World War II, many of the Polish-Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, who settled in towns around Vineland, established a large poultry industry, and though that industry has declined, the families have remained in the area.

Two industries emerged at this time in the northern section of the Pinelands as important economic activities. Lumbering, especially cedar lumbering, which had begun in the eighteenth century, was still profitable. Atlantic white cedar, a highly valued Pinelands wood, continued to be used for boatbuilding, house construction, fence posts, and bean poles. Cedar trees, buried for centuries in the muck, were excavated or "mined" for shingle manufacturing. Because cedar grows in swampy areas, wooden "crossways" or roads were built to bring wagons and then trucks in and out of the swamps. Many crossways, also called "corduroy roads," bore the names of their builders, such as "Frankie's Crossway," which dates to the eighteenth century. Crossways still provide access to cedar swamps for the cedar lumberers today. "Collins' Crossway," built recently by modern cedar lumberers, is the newest addition to the network of wooden roads which criss-cross the swamps of the Pinelands.

The swampy area of the northern section of the Pinelands, home to cedar swamps and bogs, were cleared in the 1850's by the ancestors of many of today's Pinelands cranberry growers. The sandy, acidic soil which was unsuitable for most agricultural crops was the natural environment for cranberries and blueberries that grew wild in the Pinelands. Cedar swamps and bogs were cleared during this time and replaced by cranberry bogs, which are part of today's landscape. Cranberry bogs are flat, cleared areas surrounded by dikes. Water is held in nearby reservoirs and is channeled into and out of the bogs by a system of dams, canals, and ditches. Cranberrying, like iron and glassmaking, used the natural resources of the Pinelands - acidic water and sandy soil. It is not surprising, then, that Whitesbog, first developed by James A. Fenwick, drew upon the water supply that fed the iron works at Hanover Furnace after it ceased production. Many unemployed iron workers turned to cranberrying as Whitesbog grew. Whitesbog's development was continued by J.J. White, Fenwick's son-in-law. It became, during the latter part of the nineteenth century, a major plantation, consisting of forty cranberry bogs and blueberry fields. Like the earlier iron plantations, villages grew up around cranberry bogs and their sorting houses. The village of Whitesbog, like other cranberry plantations, centered around its packing and sorting house. Villages, bogs, and even cranberries acquired names, many of which were related to the people who owned and worked the bogs. Florence and Rome were named at the turn of the century for the Italian workers who harvested the cranberry bogs. The original bogs built by Fenwick were Lower Meadow Bog, Old Bog, and Little Meadow Bog. White built other bogs including Cranberry Run Bogs, Ditch Meadow Bogs, Pole Bridge Bogs, Upper Reservoir Bogs, Antrim's Branch Bogs, Big Swamp Bog, Billy Bog, and John Bog. The tradition of naming bogs has been replaced today with the numbering system, but the old names remain on maps. Berry varieties developed as a result of hydridization were given names Of growers and residents such as Howard Bell, Richard, Garwood, Bozarthtown Pointer, Braddock Bell, Applegate, and Buchalow. In the early twentieth century, the hand-picking method was replaced by the scoop. The Applegate scoop, developed by and named for David Applegate, a Chatsworth resident, became a model for the construction of other scoops. Although the scoop method of picking has been replaced by machines, its distinctive shape, with long, curved teeth is remembered by many Pinelands residents who carve replicas which serve as magazine racks and other decorative household items.

As demonstrated by the Whitesbog example, the growth of cranberry farming in the New Jersey Pinelands was an important use of land and water that provided a new industry for local residents. The layout of the farm influenced the development of towns and villages that centered around the prominent structures of packing and sorting houses. The cranberry business is a stable and profitable one today. Many of the descendants of early growers still carrying on a family tradition that has been in existence for more than one hundred years. Family members, neighbors, and migrant farm workers are part of the community who participate in cranberrying.

Blueberries, as well as cranberries, grow naturally in the sandy, acidic Pinelands soil. Blueberry growing, with a harvest season that begins in June, supplements cranberry growing for both farm owner and workers. Many early cranberry growers began with one bog and a few rows of blueberries, as some Pinelands residents still have today. Elizabeth White, daughter of J.J. White of Whitesbog, together with Dr. Frederick Coville of the United States Department of Agriculture, began the cultivation of blueberries in New Jersey, with the help of local woodsmen who were hired to locate the best wild blueberry shrubs. Successful cultivation of blueberries resulted in varieties which White named for the gatherers, such as the Rubel, which was named for Rubin Leek of Chatsworth.

The coastal region of the Pinelands, from Toms River to Cape May, has provided another set of natural resources to support a variety of economies from the days of early settlement to the present. Boat- building, seafaring, fishing, and related industries have been the major economic activities of Pinelands people who live along the coast, rivers and the bays. Boats were essential to early industries of the Pinelands, because they were an important mode of transportation. Southern New Jersey ports located alone the coastal areas served the nation and the world as export centers for local products such as shingles, lumber, and iron. Boatyards produced the majestic schooners and sloops that worked in deeper waters, as well as the indigenous garvey, bateaux, sharpie, sneakbox, and skiff. The latter are examples of locally made, hand crafted boats. They are still used for fishing, bunting, and pleasure in the bays, rivers, and meadows of New Jersey's Pinelands. The shipbuilding industry employed almost everyone from the local populations where boatyards existed, from Cape May to the Maurice River. Today, most boatyards in the region repair older boats and build smaller craft and fiberglass boats. Some craftsmen still build boats in their backyards.

The handmade southern New Jersey boat has survived to the present day, perhaps because it is especially suited to native uses and native resources. Boatbuilders rely heavily on the use of Atlantic white cedar, which can be steamed and bent to produce the pronounced curves of these folk vessels. The garvey has been associated with southern New Jersey for over two hundred years, where it first took on its characteristic shape: flat-bottom with blunt bow and stern. It is both a pleasure and work boat, used for fishing and clamming. The skiff is the boat preferred for railbird hunting in the grassy marshes of the meadows. Its long, pointed prow is well suited for cutting through the tall grasses while its flat bottom is ideal for navigating the shallow waters. The sneakbox is favored for duck hunting. Flat-bottomed to navigate the shallow waters of bays and ponds, it is decked over on top with room for one man. It is easily hidden in the sedge growing along the shore line. Sneakbox builders often tailor this boat to an individual's size and shape. Fishing the waters of southern New Jersey - whether they are ocean, bay or river - still yield a variety of fish and shellfish for local fisherman. Weakfish, flounder, perch, bluefish, and shad are still caught. Eel trapping is also practiced today, although much less than in the past. Oystering has been important to baymen on the Delaware Bay and clamming to baymen working on the Barnegat Bay.

Out of the duck hunting tradition along the Barnegat Bay came the famed Barnegat Bay duck decoy, a wooden model of a duck made of cedar. It was hollow with painted tail feathers and was used to attract live ducks to the water. Duck decoys carved in the "Barnegat Bay" style represent an artistic Pinelands tradition dating back to the nineteenth century. Carvers who made working decoys for their own use as well as for others, still create decoys in this tradition. Although duck hunting remains a popular sport, the band-carved wooden decoy has been replaced by machine-manufactured styrofoam decoys. Today, those who carve wooden decoys do so for art and for pleasure. Their products are valued by collectors and are popular and decorative home accessories. During in the colonial period, sea salt was important because it was the only means by which food could be preserved. It was also used in the manufacture of gunpowder, which became a major necessity for the colonists with the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. For these two reasons, salt works were constructed at Barnegat Bay in 1776, and later along the Mullica and Wading Rivers in Washington Township. Salt was manufactured by channeling sea water into the salt meadows using a system of ditches and gates. The evaporating water left brine which, when boiled down, produced salt. Salt works also depended upon another Pinelands natural resource, bog iron. Kettles and evaporating pans used to process the brine were made at local iron forges.

Salt meadows yielded another natural resource that became important to nineteenth century Pinelands industry - salt hay, so named because it grew on the salt meadows. The salt hay meadows were important to nineteenth century farmers since they furnished a seemingly endless supply of feed for their animals. Additionally, salt hay was used to make wrapping and "butcher" paper in the paper mills and served as packing material in the region's glass houses, ceramic factories, and brickyards. Early in the twentieth century, rope was manufactured from salt hay, an industry which still exists, although much reduced in scale. Farmers continue to favor the use of salt bay as mulch because it will not sprout. The growth of salt hay is influenced by nature as well as man. Although water is necessary for its growth, too much water can be damaging. Natural banks which protected the meadows from sea water were in large part destroyed by a huge storm in 1950. Today, salt hay farmers have to build and maintain artificial banks, a task that has discouraged many.

The salt meadows are home for humans, animals, birds, insects, fish, and reptiles, in addition to many valuable species of plant life. Longtime Pinelands residents know their environment well, and live in close correspondence with their coinhabitants .Perhaps the most plaguing creature of the meadows is the legendary South Jersey mosquito. Residents of the meadows have learned to control the mosquito population by encouraging this insect's natural enemy, birds, especially the purple martin. Bird houses especially constructed to favor the purple martin's size and habits dot local fields and yards.

The third stage of development in the Pinelands has affected much of the region. Shortly after the beginning of this century, many small industries left or became greatly reduced in size. With the advent of the automobile, the Pinelands became increasingly accessible to major urban centers in New Jersey and neighboring states. Land developers and builders viewed the vast open space as an ideal site for suburban developments, retirement villages, and vacation homes. Frequently, Pinelands landscapes have become a mixture of urban and suburban lifestyles. Casinos, natural resource management, the construction industry, real estate development, and government installations such as
Fort Dix now provide jobs for many local residents. These new industries augment the rural economies of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by providing jobs for many long-time residents as well as newcomers.

Despite urbanization and suburbanization of the rural landscape, many Pinelands residents retain their close association with nature and their ties to family and community. Old ways of interacting with the
natural landscape continue. The Pinelands possesses natural resources that people continue to use. Wildlife provides a source of food and serves as a resource for hunters, trappers, and fishermen. Wild flowers, grasses, weeds, and pine cones are still gathered, dried, and sold to florists. Blueberries and cranberries are harvested and made into products like juices and sauces. James Still, a writer and a descendant of one of the oldest black families in the region, became skilled in the preparation of remedies and medicines from wild plants he found in the Pinelands. Many Pinelands residents live on land that has cedar swamps, wooded areas, and meadows. They tend gardens, preserve fruits and vegetables, hunt and fish, and participate in the voluntary associations like fire departments and ambulance corps that help maintain a sense of community. Their stories and songs (associated with the region and often exchanged and performed at local musical and cultural organizations such as Albert Hall in Waretown) still survive. Many continue to "work the cycle," alternating fishing and trapping, or berrying and gathering. Still others augment their factory, office, or
service industry jobs with traditional activities based on nature and the seasons, such as berrying, gathering, and trapping. The rhythm of the seasons can be seen as the harvest gives way to the hunt and quilting and maintenance of farm buildings give way to the early appearance of asparagus. Religious, cultural, and harvest festivals and celebrations punctuate the yearly cycle. The roadside stands that sell the produce of local farmers in the summer also sell locally made "grave blankets" in the late fall. Grave blankets are traditional to the Pinelands. They are made of large sprays of pine and dried grasses and are used to decorate the graves of family members in November and December.

Today, New Jersey's Pinelands is home to many people, both newcomers and natives, who are the beneficiaries of both progress and tradition. The lakefront and wooded resorts of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries became permanent homes for Russians in Cassville and Jews and Estonians in Lakewood. Medford Lakes was built on the grounds of an old sawmill. In the 1920's it was developed using a combination of frontier-style log cabins and Indian tribal names for streets.Originally designed as a lakefront resort, it is now a thriving suburbancommunity.

The Pinelands is still relatively "unspoiled" by pollution, overdevelopment, and crowded living conditions. Older towns and villages are organized around clubs, groups, and associations which maintain and promote a sense of community among local residents who continue to interact familiarly with their natural environment. The newer suburban developments and the leisure and retirement villages are often surrounded by woodlands and meadows, or rivers and bays, as well as by high-speed highways and shopping malls. And tucked away in the Pinelands are the ghost towns, the abandoned sites of early rural industry and failed land speculation. They are almost covered over now by the cedar and the wild grape, silent souvenirs of the not-quite- forgotten way of life that the forest is reclaiming for its own.