Most people think of New Jersey as a suburban industrial corridor that runs between New York and Philadelphia. Yet in the low center of the state is a near wilderness, larger than most national parks, which has been known since the seventeenth century as the Pine Barrens.

The term "Pine Barrens" refers to the forests of pine, oak, and cedar that cover an area of loose, sandy soil that early settlers found unpromising for farming. Technically—that is, by their geological and botanical definition—the Pine Barrens cover eighteen hundred and seventy-five square miles, or about a fourth of the state. On all sides, however, developments of one kind or another have gradually moved in, so that now the central and integral forest is reduced to about a thousand square miles. Although New Jersey has the heaviest population density of any state, huge segments of the Pine Barrens remain uninhabited. The few people who dwell in the region, the "Pineys," are little known and often misunderstood.