Ghost Towns and Other Quirky Places

Okay, I’ll admit it. I went into Barbara Solem-Stull’s latest book, “Ghost Towns and Other Quirky Places in the New Jersey Pine Barrens” wanting to hate it. I figured that it would be yet another recycle of the Beck’s Forgotten Towns series, with little new content and a disappointing price tag.

There have been several of these types of books published in recent years, and with each one I read I feel that there was not much effort or love for the Pines evident within. With Stull’s “Ghost Towns” I can happily say that I was wrong.

What struck me first about the book was it’s size. It’s 350 pages in a well designed softcover. Plexus Press, which has put out some really high quality Pine Barrens books including “A Field Guide to the Pine Barrens of New Jersey” by Howard Boyd, did not skimp on this book. Happily, the book is a baragin at only $19.95.

The book starts out with a short section dealing with the dangers of Pine Barrens exploring - namely getting stuck in sugar sand or murky black puddles. Stull also touches briefly on insects - including my nemesis the chigger - and what to do to avoid them. This shows considerable foresight, because this book is the kind that newbie explorers will get their hands on and use as a field guide.

Each chapter begins with a short history and a description ruins and sights in the area. Oftentimes there are drawings and maps of the town sights drawn by Berminna Solem. The maps themselves would be very helpful to future explorers. The chapters then have “A Deeper Look” which then has a really in-depth view of the history of the subject in the chapter. It’s nice to have the short history and “A Deeper Look” separate, although at times you do feel like you’ve read something twice if you read the book page by page.

The book starts at Atsion, brings us to Hampton, and then explores the Tuckerton Stage Road. I was pleased to learn some new things about familiar sights - including the fact that the Tuckerton Road has a “north” and a “south” route, which caused some confusion on our discussion forums when I posted about following the road in my Jeep. The book brings us to Harisville, Chatsworth, Pasadena, Old Half Way, through the sights of Byrne State Forest, Whitesbog, Weymouth and finally leaves us at Wheaton Village. There are many places I left out simply because it would just sound like a list of places in the Pine Barrens. One disappointment that I had was that towns like Parkdale, Red Oak Grove, Howardsville, and even Aserdaten did not even get mentioned in passing.

The author’s writing style is very neat and clean. I did find myself skipping ahead a few pages here and there. Her love for these places is very evident in her work. The accompanying photography (done by her husband) is nice, but very “snapshotty.” This is, however, a book about ghost towns and not about photographic method.

One final complaint. I loathe the title, and this probably led me to want to hate the book the most. “Quirky” is just such an awful word to describe some of the wonderful places in the Pine Barrens. I feel a more appropriate word would have suited the title better.

I do have to say, however, that this book surpassed all of my expectations, and I predict that it will become a classic as the Beck Books have become. Certainly, this is the book that I would have written - except that Barbara Solem-Stull beat me to it!

Ghost Towns and Other Quirky Places in the New Jersey Pine Barrens

By: Barbara Solem-Stull
Plexus Publishing, Medford, NJ 2005
ISBN: 0-937548-60-X