On The Trail

This morning, I was writing a note to a friend who had recently suffered one of the predictable tragedies of a long life. In her case, her husband of 55 years had passed away. It made me think of the ways in which I have coped with such losses in my life. The main two rescue boats have been books and driving, going for rides. Both of these escape routes originated in my earliest years. From the time I became a fluent reader, around age six or so, I have escaped from a bad mood, an emotional discomfort, or any kind of contemporary pain, by reading - a great distraction. In later years, I returned to the comfort of taking a RIDE in the car. We all know that you can soothe a fussy baby or toddler with a ride in the car, same for a restless soul or a soul in pain.

While writing about my driving cure, I realized that my driving of the later years seemed to follow a trail, a theme of some kind. Not in any chronoological order, they seemed to follow a search such as my search for old train stations. Often these searches resulted from having already found one that sparked my interested but just as often, I followed the trail for some other reason and found a place of interest as a result, for example, following the old train station trail, I came across Eiland Arts in Merchantville. When I was a teen, I often walked the railroad tracks from Maple Shade into Merchantville where there was an old train depot. The Merchantville Train Depot has been rescued and turned into an ARTS CENTER! and a Coffee Shop! You can drop in there and have a coffee and a scone and see an Art Show! You can sign up for a class or order some baked goods too. Also, beside the train depot the old track line has been turned ito Rails to Trails, another of my search themes. A friend joined me on the RAILS TO TRAILS search and we went as far as the seashore, I think it was the Linwood Rails to Trails. In many places where rail lines have gone out of use, the rails have been repurposed for hiking and biking - a great idea.

So here is a list of some of the trails I have followed, in case you are looking for something to do: The OLD OYSTER TOWNS: Bayshore Discovery Project, Shell Pile, Port Norris. Your Main Stop on this trail is The Bayshore Discovery Project Center which houses a museum and an oyster bar and the oyster schooner, A. J. Meerwald is docked there for a boat ride on an old oyster schooner. Be sure to call and reserve in advance for the boat ride as they have a specific schedule. In fact for any place I mention it is wise to check out the on-line presence first for hours and so on. But don't let that stop you - after all, it is a RIDE and even if your destination turns out to be closed, who knows what you might find on the way there or on the way home!

Speaking of oyster schooners, South Jersey especially along he Maurice River has many old towns that grew up around the ship building trade. At Mauricetown, you can walk around and tour the old captains' houses! SHIP BUILDING TOWNS, a good theme.

OLD INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES: BATSTO Village and Visitor's Center - Along with touring the mansion and the village, at the visitori's center, you can buy Barbara Solem's book GHOSTTOWNS AND OTHER QUIRKY PLACES IN THE NEW JERSEY PINE BARRENTS and you could spend years folowing the trail of old industrial villages and disappeared towns, as well as towns that were laid out and never built in that book! ALLAIRE Village is another historic and preserved industrial age village to visit.

ONE ROOM SCHOOLS - I actually took a tour once of the one-room schools of Burlington County. Having been a school teacher before I retired you can see why this theme was of interest. There is one in Maple Shade and one in Vincentown, but I have run across them in many places. You might find a list in the Burlington County Historical Society website - the BCHS organized the tour many years ago that I enjoyed.

STATE PARKS - there was a marvelous little booklet that the State Parks put out and one year a friend and I went to most of them that could be reached in an easy one day drive. It was called a PASSPORT to the STATE PARKS. At each state park ranger station you got a stamp to put in your booklet.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR BATTLE SITES - New Jersey missed the ball on this one, New Jersey has hundreds of sites of Revolutionary War interest which no one seems to know about except the few stalwart history dovotee's who do lectures, mpas, and research on them, a few of which I have attended. Needless to say up in the Trenton area are several but down south we have Hancock's Bridge, the site of a massacre and a good place to start, and right nearby is Quinton's Bridge, the site of another skirmish but the gem, of course, is Red Bank Battlefield in National Park. You can visit the James and Ann Whitall House while there, and that may spark your interest in following Quaker Meeting Houses!

There is a long trail of QUAKER MEETING HOUSES in Suth Jersey and you can Start in Burlington and work your way down via the Old Salem Road (don't get me started on the controversy over whether Kings Highway is the Old Salem Road or not) anyhow you can find them through Woodbury, Woodstown, Salem and all the way to GREENWICH (Where there are TWO).

GREENWICH (pronounced Green Witch) is worth the drive for its many interesting palces to visit. There is the tea burner monument, a long YE GREATE STREET of marked historic buildings, a couple of nearby harbors witha restaurant in one. And there is a museum open a few times a year and an early autumn FAIRE!

SALEM is another town on the way to Greenwich that has many siites of interest. There is the MEETING HOUSE, but sadly the ANCIENT SALEM OAK once a great destination point for me and other tree lovers, has died. How many historic events that tree witnessed in its hundreds of years in the cemetery grounds. Also in Salem there was the Salem Oak Diner, and old diners are another good trail to follow with a fun lunch component. There is an ecellent book available on New Jersey Diners. I heard the author speak at the Burlington County Historical Society - another great visit!

Speaking of the Burlington County Historical Society, there is a well-known Underground Railroad site thre, Wheatley Pharmacy which I think has a small museum attached, or at least it used to. The UNDERGROUND RAILROAD IS AN EXCELLENT THEME TO FOLLOW. You can start down in Greenwhich which also holds a great Revolutionary War site - the Tea Burning Monument. Having been a great place for smugglers to try to sneak tea into South Jersey destined for Phladelphia via the Cohansey River. My first introduction to the Underground Railroad in Greenwich came when I spotted a small roadside cemetery called OTHELLO outside the village. Othello was an African American village where an early school was established for African American children. The old town is next to Greenwich, and at Othello I found a CIVIL WAR cemetery of African America Civil War Veterans.

SADDLER'S WOODS is one of my local favorite sites with a connection to the days of Slavery in New Jersey. An escaped enslaved man found sanctuary, freedom, and employment with a Quaker farmer named Evans in what is now Haddon Township. Saddler bought a plot of farm land of his own and around him sprang up a small community called Saddlertown. When Saddler died he left a plot of original old growth forest in his will to be conserved in perpetuity and so it has been. There is a nice 30 minute hiking trail there. A conservation group once gave a tour of the flora and fauna of Saddler's Woods through the Audubon Adult Ed. program which was wonderful. The conservation group have a building nearby, I think on Buttonwood Ave, but you can look them up and get more information on their web site.

Speaking of Haddon Twp. reminds me of Elizabeth HADDON and the history of OLD FAMILIES which is a fun trail to follow. Elizabeth Haddon came to the new world to make residence on land her father had purchased and she established Haddonfield. Two other founding families in our area worth noting with places to visit are the COOPER family and the FENWICK family. Cooper bought land in Camden and established several farms which he left to his sons, and two or three ferry lines to Philadelphia. His founding home, Pomona Hall is still standing and a wonderful historic house to visit next to the Camden County Historical Society and Library. One of the old ferry buildings is in the process of being saved (rescued) and may become a Revolutionary War Museum - about time! FENWICK was the founder of Salem, and there is a large stone marker on the enrance of Salem to commemorate that event. There is a line in his will where he disinherits a granddaughter for marrying outside her race and religion which becomes an interesting trail to follow to Gouldstown, a multiracial village of African American, Dutch, Indigenous and European ancestry.

LIGHTHOUSES - this needs no explanation but there is an interesting World War II exhibition at the lighthouse in Cape May! East Point Lighthouse is one of my favorites.

A fun and developing theme for driving around and walking is CONVERTED GOLF COURSES. My favorite, and there are several, is at Coxe's Creek, near Cape May. I think there may be another where the Eagle's Nest golf course used to be. These are golf courses that closed and have been allowed to return to some semblance of a natural landsccape.

A good one for summer, or fall, for that matter, is Lakes. You may be interested to know that there are few natural lakes in New Jersey and, I think NONE IN SOUTH JERSEY, most of the ponds and lakes in South Jersey were constructed by farmers and in particular Cranberry Bog farmers, or Marl pit diggers, and QUARRY diggers.

CRANBERRY BOGS - There are many of these to seek out - start with Whitesbog a wonderful landscape to hike and enjoy and a small store/museum and the residence of Elizabeth White who cultivated the blueberry from the wild highbush berry. There is a blueberry farm nearby and a few times a year a blueberry picking and festival! >p/> Quarries are an interesting search theme, the only one I can think of at the moment is BLUE HOLE - a famous one! But Ceres Park has an interesting Marl pit-quarry pond that is an amazing jade green color at certain times of the year. When I was a teen, various neighborhood boys knew of quarries in the pines where we would go to swim - perilous! But I don't really know where those quarries were located only that it was a favorite summer adventure of my youth, the 1960's.

Another fun summer theme is boat rides - Start with Captain Dave in Millville and enjoy a peaceful chug down the Maurice River, with a nice vegan lunch at Wildflowers Vegan Restaurant and maybe a visit in the shops and galleries of the GLASSTOWN district. Also that brings us to:

RIVERWALKS - Millville has an interesting River Walk path which on the south bank is long dirt walking trail and turns into a festival area on the norther bank, city side, on various weekend evenings. For the more adventurous hiker, there are the Maurice River Bluffs to hike with several marked trails and great views. Many towns in our River Rich state of New Jersey have Riverwalks, and Cooper River is another one, in Camden Cunty. Also, Bordentown has a CANAL PATH as well!

And if you are looking for inspiration, seek out the Historical Societies! Many towns have one and often they have a variety of tours, brochures, and books. A great histoical tour I enjoyed with a friend just before the Pandemic was sponsored by the Berlin Historic Society and we toured a cemetery with re-enactors telling the stories of people buried there, as well as a visit to one of the oldest train depots still in use. They are a wealth of information and you can begin with Camden County Historical Society - by appointment only at present, check out their website and call first, but they have a rack of brochures with dozens of hsitoric sites you can visit and find trails to follow - for example, you can follow along with poet Walk Whitman from his historic home (tours available by appointment) in Camden to a resort spot he liked at Laurel Srings, to the end of the line, his tomb in Harleigh Cemetery in Camden. CEMETERIES are a wonderful tour theme.

CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS IN NJ - My father worked on the CCC but in a different state, Virginia, nonetheless, because of that, I knew what the WPA and the CCC were. The Federal Works Project was designed both to put Americans back to work at restoring, recording and resurrecting our nation after the Depression and the Dust Bowl, and to train young men for the upcoming World War II. One component of the many faceted WPA was the Civilian Conservation Corps and their main job was replanting the environmentally devastated wastelands left behind by industrial exploitation. The New Jersey forests had been decimated by industries from the iron furnaces to charcoal making, bogs and other agriculture. The TREE ARMY as they were known, replanted millions of trees. To find out more, you can go to Bass River State Park and Parvin State Park and walk the trails, both places have historic markers describing some of the work done by the CCC.

BATTLESHIP NEW JERSEY - I haven't done much exploration on the theme of WWII in New Jersey but heavens knows you can guess there is plenty - from that lighthouse in Cape May that I mentioned to the USS NEW JERSEY BATTLESHIP. Tomorrow is July 4th and there will be fireworks viewed from the Battleship. I have visited the ship many times and it is well worth your visit. I understand there may be a museum opening nearby where the shipyard used to be but I don't have any information on that at hand.

GHOSTS AND HAUNTINGS - Ok, I must be honest, I do not believe in ghosts or hauntings, but if you do and it gets you out and exploring, well, New Jersey has plenty. One trip/tour that I recommend is to White Hill Mansion in Fieldsboro, New Jersey. I believe around Halloween they have a hunted house tour which I took with a friend and it was fun and fascinating. This is a fascinating house to visit and learn more about with a long long history that includes the Revolutionary War! Again, check the web site to see what hours, or just drive up and look at the house from the outside.

FORT ELFSBORG THE SWEDES - If you want to go back to founders, the Swedes and the Dutch were here very early to trade with the Indigenous people and I apologize for not having more on Native American New Jersey. The only thing I had was the Pow Wow that used to be held in the autumn at Rancocas Woods Reservation but I believe it is closed now. Also there is a book on BROTHERTON. Anyhow, there isn't much left on the Dutch and not uch left here on the early Swedes beyond the name of their fort - FORT ELFSBORG. There is an artist colony hearby with an annual open studio that used to be held. Also, if you are searching for Fort Elfsborg as I was once you may come across the Abel Nicholson House - beautiful old historic house hidden down an often flooded dirt road on the Fort Elfsborg trail. And of course, there is Trinity Church in Swedesboro and a marvelous LOG CABIN on the bluff overlooking the road. I think it is the Schoorn Cabin. And of course, the Nothnagle Log Cabin recently up for sale, which is known as the oldest Swedish/Finnish log cabin in America! I am in love with log cabins. There is another one at the entrance to Salem! Oh yes, now that I think of it, there is one in Burlington as well!

History Heroes and BOOKS - I have known and heard of some remarkable History Heroes, people who strove to save what they could of the disappearing history of their patches. At the now departed Murphy's Book Loft which used to be in Mullica Hill, I bought many copies of an old magazine on the history of South Jersey, the editor of which was SHIREY BAILEY. She also wrote several books some of which I have tracked down, about the history of, for example, the Maurice River. MEN, THE SEA AND INDUSTRY, by MARGARET LOUISE MINTS, is a classic and a rare book which I managed to find one copy of but which is now very expensive. These are just two of the hundreds of heroic history savers I can think of at the moment, but nearly every historical society has one they can mention. Different counties had different heroes, of course, I think Frank Stewart was one for Gloucester County. A book you really must have is the WPA State Guide for New Jersey. The WPA published one for every state in the U.S. in 1937 and this is a gem. You could use it to find places to explore for the rest of your life! Also, don't forget Barbara Solem's book GHOSTTOWNS AND OTHER QUIRKY PLACES OF THE NEW JERSEY PINE BARRENS. I think the Arcadia books are helpful too.

Gotta Walk the Dog - oh, yes, DOG PARKS are a fun one to follow if you hae a canine friend!

Happy Trails! Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com