| Double Trouble Village |
Located on the eastern edge of the New Jersey Pine Barrens, Double Trouble Village provides a window into Pine Barrens industry with a complete company town, a sawmill, and a cranberry sorting and packing house. The Double Trouble Historic District occupies over 200 acres and includes the village and surrounding bogs. The natural environment of cedar forest and rapidly flowing stream provided both raw materials and water power for an extensive lumber industry from the 1700s to the 1900s. As timber was cut, the cleared swampland created bog habitat ideal for growing cranberries. Cranberry culture began at Double Trouble Village in the 1860s. By the 20th century, the Double Trouble Company was one of the largest cranberry operations in the state. Irish merchant Anthony Sharp became the first recorded land owner of what would eventually become Double Trouble Village when he acquired the property in 1698. By 1765, his son operated a sawmill on the site. William Giberson purchased the Double Trouble property by 1836. He later turned over the operation to his son, George Giberson. They ran two sawmills at Double Trouble. From the seaport in Toms River, lumber was shipped to ports up and down the east coast. As increasingly large areas of Atlantic white cedar swamp were cleared for the timber operation, the Gibersons looked for methods to reclaim the cleared land for additional income. Cranberry production afforded such an opportunity. Civil War Captain Ralph Gowdy is credited with planting the first cranberry bog at Double Trouble about 1863. Soon after, George Giberson’s son in law, sawmill operator Thomas Hooper, planted the two bogs now known as the Upper and Lower Hooper Bogs. George Giberson’s daughter sold the property to Edward Crabbe in 1903. Six years later Crabbe formed the Double Trouble Company and expanded the cranberry industry. Under the Crabbe family’s management, 260 acres of cranberry bogs were cultivated. The Mill Pond Bog, at 56 acres, was the largest in New Jersey. Edward Crabbe rebuilt the sawmill and built a modern cranberry sorting and packing house. Cottages were constructed for migrant workers to stay during the harvest season. Under Crabbe’s leadership the Double Trouble Company became one of the largest growers in the business. They sold fresh dry harvested cranberries. After Edward Crabbe passed away and a fluctuation in the market brought down the price of cranberries, the Double Trouble Company offered their land for sale. After negotiations with several developers fell through, the village and surrounding land were purchased from the Double Trouble Company by the State of New Jersey in 1964 in part to protect the Cedar Creek watershed. The Double Trouble Historic District, which includes the village, reservoir and cranberry bogs, was placed on the state and national registries of historic places in 1977 and 1978. For almost a century cranberries were “dry” harvested at Double Trouble Village. Berries were originally picked by hand one at a time. As the industry expanded migrant workers raked berries off the vine with a cranberry scoop. The fresh cranberries were then sorted and packaged on site for shipment to market. In the mid 1960s the Double Trouble Village cranberry bogs were “wet” harvested. Bogs were flooded with water from a reservoir on Cedar Creek. A machine was then used to knock the berries off the submerged vines. The floating cranberries were corralled to one side of the bog and removed for shipment to a central receiving plant in Chatsworth. As the cranberry industry shifted from fresh dry harvested berries to faster processed wet harvested berries, the large number of migrant workers was no longer needed and many of the buildings were abandoned. Some of the original cranberry bogs are still visible at Double Trouble Village. Other bogs, including the Mill Pond Bog, were abandoned and have successional growth of red maple and Atlantic white cedar competing for sunlight. Double Trouble Village was typical of company towns built in the Pine Barrens. These isolated communities were entirely self-sufficient and totally dependent on the success of the particular industry. The restored sawmill and cranberry sorting and packing house contain nearly intact equipment. Those two buildings were the focus of life and work in the village, which also includes a late 19th century one room schoolhouse, general store, bunk house, cook house, shower house, maintenance shop, pickers’ cottages and the foreman’s house. Most buildings are not restored; only the sawmill and cranberry packing house are open to the public during guided tours. The Origins of the Name: Double Trouble There are conflicting stories about the naming of “Double Trouble.” Most of the common legends center around an earthen dam at a mill pond on Cedar Creek. Sawmill operator Thomas Potter may have coined the words “Double Trouble” in the 1770’s after heavy rains twice damaged the dam causing the first trouble and then double trouble. A more colorful legend involves muskrats that persisted at gnawing at the dam, causing frequent leaks. Such leaks, when discovered, gave rise to the alarm “Here’s Trouble.” Upon which workmen would rush to repair the damage. One day two breaks were discovered and a workman overheard the owner shout “Here's double trouble!” |