Crossley Preserve
Crossley Road via Pinewald-Keswick (Rte 530), Berkeley Township, Ocean County, NJ
1,200 acres

Directions:

access the area via Crossley road which dead-ends at a small parking area. Park is adjacent to Robert J. Miller Airpark.

Geology:

Davenport Branch of Tom's River.

History:

1800's and early 1900's -- town of Crossley was the center of an active clay-mining operation; only ruins still remain.

1914  --  George C. Crossley Co. of Trenton acquires the 128 acres of the Crossley Clay Works. The terra-cotta clay was used for bricks, pipes and pottery. 

1920s -- Crossley sells his works to the Cypress Land Company.

The Cypress Land Company sold the land to the National Land Trust. Crossley Preserve started as a 251 acre tract.  (Miller 2000:332-333)

Managed by the Natural Lands Trust. The Trust acquired the 1,044-acre Krischer property in Berkeley and Lacey townships. The purchase added 759 acres to the state's Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area and 185 acres to the state's Crossley Preserve. Funding for the project was provided by the NJDEP Green Acres Program, Ocean County's Natural Lands Trust and TPL grants from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The William Penn Foundation.

The Trust for Public Land http://www.tpl.org/tier3_cd.cfm?content_item_id=8621&folder_id=629

Habitats:

pine and oak forest, cranberry bog

Trails:

old sand trails