Imagined Glassboro Mural Proposal: Community Parks

About: The Glassboro CC Woods

The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife, a government organization, administers around 122 “wildlife management areas” (otherwise known as WMAs) throughout the state. These wildlife areas are protected by the government as grounds that can benefit both the land and people. One of these lands is the Glassboro-Clayton CC Woods (also known as the “state woods”), which is a 2,337 acre forest accompanied by swamps and open fields. The woods serve as a site for many of the cultural activities of the community while also working to preserve open spaces, endangered animals, and water supplies. 

Some of the popular activities at the CC Woods are bird watching and hunting. Year round, birdwatchers flock to the wildlife management areas to see a vast variety of warblers and other bird species. In fact, according to local birdwatchers, the woods are home to an estimated 158 different bird species. During the fall and winter months, hunting is also a popular pastime. This creates an interesting juxtaposition: while humans seek to protect nature through WMAs, they balance this with what they seek to use for their own personal benefit.

One of the other highlights of the woods is the Monroe Township Bike Trail, a 6.3 mile bike trail that connects Glassboro and Williamstown. The trail passes right through the northern section of CC Woods, allowing cyclists shade from trees and a great view. Before it was a bike trail, the pathway actually served as a railroad that was used by local glassmakers to transport their goods. Nowadays, it is a part of Circuit Trails, a bike trail that connects the greater Philadelphia area for recreational and commuting uses. While the trail once served as a source of pollutants from the railroad and the production of the industrialists who used it, it now preserves nature while also serving a purpose to humans. This is another example of how contemporary culture has progressed to simultaneously preserve the environment while also using it for its own good. 

The last thing to note of the CC Woods is not of the natural, but actually the supernatural. Residents of Glassboro and Rowan students often associate the state woods with ghosts and the infamous Jersey Devil. These stories have spread by word of mouth and more recently through the internet. Longtime Glassboro resident Carmen Trifiletti recalls childhood rumors of the Jersey Devil haunting the CC Woods, and how mischievous children would seek out the truth for themselves by spending late nights exploring. Additionally, Mary Ritzer Christianson, once a student at Glassboro State College, remembers one night seeing a creature “similar to a goat” but with a “nearly human looking torso” and “wooly head”, while on her drive home. However far fetched these stories may seem, one thing is certain: the mystery of the Jersey Devil is ingrained Glassboro’s collective sense of place.  


 

This page has paths:

Contents of this path:

This page references: