Pine Barrens Ghost Towns

Burlington County College’s Pinelands Institute for Natural and Environmetneal Sciences in conjunction with the New Jersey Pinelands commission are sponsoring the 21st Annual Pinelands Short Course.  The course will be held  Saturday, March 20. This 2010  program has 27 new courses, and includes 6 field trips, 2 all-day bus tours, Pinelands exhibits and demonstrations.

You can find a brochure and registration form here

If you’re trying to find that perfect gift for your budding historian, or New Jersey fan, here are a couple ideas.

Why not give them a copy of the Award-winning DVD “Lost Towns of the Pine Barrens, Vol. I?”  The dvd takes the viewer on a tour of the New Jersey Pine Barrens.  Viewers will discover the history and mystery of the Pinelands. They will learn about the once bustling iron industry, the men who made it work, and the towns that dotted the region.  You can pick up a copy by clicking on the DVD cover in the upper right of this page.

Books are always a good idea, and here are a few suggestions.

Those are just a few ideas. Have a Happy Holiday.

A weekend trek to Historic Batsto Village on Sunday October 18, 2009 will have something country for everyone. This year’s Batsto Country Living Fair is set for Sunday, October 18. it will run  from 10 am to 4:00 pm. http://www.batstovillage.org/country-living-fair.htm

There will be crafts, exhibits, music, old-time engines & cars, food, antiques, pony rides, farm equipment, chain-saw art, quilting, and more.

The video above is from last year’s Country Living Fair.  Batsto is one of the few places in the Pine Barrens where you can really get a taste for what life was like in the early days of this nation. From the owners mansion to the workers homes. Begun as a sawmill, Batsto was also home to an Iron Furnace and later a glass making facility. To learn more about Batsto and the other towns of the Pine Barrens, be sure to pick up your own copy of the Award-winning Documentary “Lost Towns of the Pine Barrens, Vol. I”  today