Mulliner the Mariner: The Man Beyond the Myth
Those familiar with the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey may also be familiar with the name Joe Mulliner, the infamous outlaw who, according to legend, is said to have terrorized the inhabitants of the Pines during the American War for Independence. Beyond the myth, there was a real man, but what facts are known […]
A Hat, a Hut, or a Tavern: The Tale of Ong’s Hat
It all started with a road map of New Jersey. A little north of the Red Lion Circle, in the heart of the Burlington County Pine Barrens, the map depicted a tiny hamlet marked with the unusual name of “Ongs Hat.” In the early 1930s, Henry Charlton Beck, a reporter with the Camden Courier Post, […]
Ghosts of Old Jersey Fiddlers Still Haunt the Back Woods
Whenever I walk the Tallertown road, the ghosts rise up around me. There is, to begin with, the ghost of the town itself for in these days no one seems to be sure if the village, now only a scattering of weather black houses, was Tallertown or Tylertown. Up to now, or not long ago, […]
The Wells Mills Frog Farm
By Robert Blanda. It was back in 1968, that the Wells Mills Frog Farm first saw the light of day. Even the locals were unaware of the giant 10-, 20-pound, and even larger, frogs that were being dredged up at night, from a secret Wells Mills Road lake, for shipment the following morning to the […]
The Legend of the Jersey Devil
Stretching from Toms River in Ocean County, to Cape May lies a tract of forest that has captivated people since pre-colonial times. Some of the first permanent settlements in North America were in the Delaware River area. Dutch, Swedes, Portuguese, and English settlers all found the area a harsh but profitable area to settle. In […]