Bayshore Discovery Center, Bivalve, NJ

'Flagship: Monument on the Move' ]On November 1, the Bayshore Center and the Monuments to Migration and Labor (NJMML) project hosted Flagship: Monument on the Move, the first of three events that NJMML Monument Artist Immanuel Oni is organizing in the South Jersey project region. The event focused on exploring the migration histories of African Americans who came to the Port Norris area from the Chesapeake Bay region, to work in the oyster industry.'

For two or three years, I worked as a tour guide at the Bayshore Discovery Project. If you haven't been there ist is the re juvenated and reanimated ghost town of the former multimillion dollar oyster industry. There are so many things to see "down South" and I strongly recommend you go exploring from Greenwich on the Cohansey to Bivalve, Shelpile on the Bay. There are a couple of nearby boat marinas if you go to Greenwich and one has a nice restaurant though you need to check because I am not certain of the days, hours or seasons.

The Civilian Conservation Corps, the WPA recorded live interviews with people who were trucked from down South to work in the oyster canning industry. The Museum at the Bayshore Discovery Project has audio versions of those interiwws, as wel as the standing stations used by the shuckers who could wield their oyster lnives like ninjas. These trucked in season workers were housed in dormatory style bunk houses at Shell Pile, named for the reekin mountains of shells under the blanket of screaming seagulls. These mountains of shells were ground into gravel for roads and powder for fertilizer.

There is so much to learn about this once thriing industry in both New Jersey and New York. There is also a wonderful raised trail into the marshlands for bird lovers.

Happy trails through New Jersey's deep and fascinating history wrightj45@yahoo.com