During the summer of 1921, the small towns of central and southern New Jersey were cruelly besieged by a wholly unexpected series of rain storms, which caught the local populace and the concerned governance thoroughly off-guard. Many were displaced from their homes, as the deluge pummeled the hamlets and villages that lined the innumerable creeks and tributaries that flowed across the flat lowland region. Most returned after several days to find a thick layer of mud and leaves in their root cellars and first floors. The state and federal agencies responsible for the oversight of such emergencies were called into duty, although passage through many through the vine-choked barrens was less than ideal. The rains and flooding was not without precedent; during the spring of 1847 the Pennsauken Creek was engorged to horrific proportions; locals told of the mounds of peat churned from the creek bottoms, and some told tales that have been dismissed as the product of hysteria, superstition or simply over-consumption of the locally drawn spirits.
The displaced complained of the flood and the strange and unknown things dredged up by the torrents that flowed through the creek valley. The flooding had caused the primary waterways to overflow their banks and bleed into the nearby streams and tributaries, churning up the unseen denizens of the murky bottomlands, those that wished to remain hidden, during the chronic twilight that infects this section of the pines. They also complained of the inhabitants that had remained in their homes despite further warnings by the Governour of New Jersey. One small-unnamed town inhabited entirely by gypsy folk from the Balkans remained entirely populated as though the flood had never occurred, despite the wreckage evident upon the shanty-town. The eastern folk from the New Jersey Pines were most vocal about their hatred of these foreigners, who took to associating only amongst themselves and worshipping and living in their singular way. These strangers had even prevented the extension of the Gloucester to Barnegat Railroad through their small village causing the rail-line to reroute further to the south.
These lost tales of the dark Pine Barrens and their inhabitants come to life once again through the disturbing sounds of the Rancocas Folk Trio.
