Gloucester County Buzz

A weekly look around Gloucester County.

Issue 1 - A Wilson Lake walk and the weekend the Cold War came to Glassboro

Hey, neighbor. Welcome to the first Gloucester County Buzz. Every week I'll send you one email about life around here, from the river towns like Paulsboro and West Deptford, through Woodbury and Deptford, down Route 55 to Glassboro and Rowan, and out Route 322 to the farms around Mullica Hill and Swedesboro. This first one covers Halloween weekend and runs through Election Day next Tuesday.

What's in this one

1

Hot picks · An adults-only Halloween night at the fossil museum in Mantua, a Pulitzer winner at Rowan, Freaky Friday in Pitman and a Halloween jam in Clarksboro.

2

Field guide · How to walk Wilson Lake at Scotland Run Park in Clayton before the clocks fall back.

3

The scrap · A 1986 score somebody wrote on a dollar bill and a skeleton Dolly on Williamstown's Main Street. Plus a ferret riding the escalator at the Deptford mall.

4

What's building · What's on next Tuesday's ballot, and last call to comment on the Dinosaur Trail route.

5

Makers · A free glass museum on High Street in Glassboro and the Christmas candy list at Damask's in Woolwich.

6

Deep cut · Hollybush, the glassmaker's house where Johnson and Kosygin met in 1967.

7

Season · The Sanderson Sisters at Harbaugh Village, and the last days of the corn maze at Mood's.

Hot picks

This weekend's best bets around here.

Halloween lands on a Saturday this year, so this Friday, Oct 30 is stacked from Mantua to Pitman. Saturday night there's a Halloween jam at a Clarksboro brewery if you've got anything left after trick-or-treat.

Event graphic for Fossils & Frights with glowing pink dinosaur skulls on a purple dance floor.

Image: Edelman Fossil Park & Museum

Mantua · Fri Oct 30 · 7-11pm · $40, $25 Rowan students · 18+

Fossils & Frights, an adults-only Halloween night at the fossil museum

Edelman Fossil Park & Museum, at 66 Million Mosasaur Way, turns into an 18-and-over Halloween party Friday night, with a costume contest and DJ Interstella spinning all night. The Dinosaur Coast and Monstrous Seas exhibits are open the whole time, and pizza from Steak Out plus desserts from Amici in Mullica Hill are included. The two drink tickets are for soft drinks and energy drinks, so plan on a sober night. There's also a tasting table of edible bugs, which is a sentence I never thought I'd write about Mantua. Edelman Fossil Park & Museum

Pencil hatch drawing of an empty concert stage under an arched, paneled proscenium, with a grand piano, lid raised, and a banjo leaning on a wooden chair beside it.

Illustration by Buzz Artist

Glassboro (Rowan) · Fri Oct 30 · 7:30-9:30pm · free to $35, registration required

Lara Downes and Rhiannon Giddens bring "Sounds Like America" to Pfleeger Concert Hall

Pianist Lara Downes and Rhiannon Giddens, who has won a Pulitzer and a Grammy, trade songs and stories about American music at Rowan's Pfleeger Concert Hall, from "Amazing Grace" to Paul Simon's "American Tune." Registration is required through the Rowan box office at 856-256-4545, and open captioning is available. Tickets start at free, which makes a Pulitzer winner on a Friday night the best deal in this whole email. Rowan Today

Show artwork reading Disney Freaky Friday, A New Musical, in pink and orange letters on a striped background.

Image: The Broadway Theatre of Pitman

Pitman · Fri Oct 30 8pm · Sat Oct 31 2pm and 8pm · Sun Nov 1 2pm · $40

Disney's Freaky Friday, the musical, at the Broadway Theatre of Pitman

A busy mom and her teenage daughter swap bodies and get one day to fix it, on stage at the Broadway Theatre at 43 South Broadway. The theater rates it PG, best for ages 10 and up. Tickets are $40 with tax and fees included, and all sales are final. Bring your teenager, and maybe nobody make a wish on the way in. The Broadway Theatre

Pencil hatch drawing of a taproom corner in daylight, with a row of tap handles on the wall, a carved jack-o'-lantern on the bar, and an acoustic guitar and a microphone stand by a tall curtained window.

Illustration by Buzz Artist

East Greenwich (Clarksboro) · Sat Oct 31 · 6-9pm

A Halloween jam with Chuck M at Death of the Fox

Death of the Fox Brewing, at 119 Berkley Road in Clarksboro, hosts a Local Music Halloween Jam with Chuck M on Saturday from 6 to 9. The brewery's calendar doesn't list a cover or a ticket price, so check before you go. It's a brewery and a coffee roastery in one building, and the Milky Way Latte Porter is made with their own coffee, which is how I'm staying up past trick-or-treat. Death of the Fox

Field guide

One useful guide to living around here.

Pencil hatch drawing of Wilson Lake on a calm day, with a small wooden footbridge on a leaf-strewn trail along the shore, big oaks overhead, tall reeds at the water's edge and a line of pines on the far bank.

Scotland Run Park · 980 East Academy Street, Clayton

Scotland Run Park - a Wilson Lake walk before the clocks fall back

The clocks fall back at 2am on Sunday, Nov 1, and after that the after-work walk turns into a walk in the dark. So this is the week I'd get to Scotland Run Park in Clayton. Gloucester County calls it its largest park, well over a thousand acres of woods around 80-acre Wilson Lake, and it's free and open every day from sunrise to sunset.

Walking trails start behind the Nature Center and on the lake side of the park, and there's a fishing pier and a canoe and kayak launch on the water. The Nature Center has live snakes and frogs, but it's only open Thursday and Friday afternoons and weekends from 10 to 3, so plan around it.

The full guide has the Nature Center hours and which side of the street to park on if you've got little kids.

Read the field guide

The scrap

The best stuff you missed in the area's social media world.

Somebody found a dollar bill with a 1986 Glassboro and Williamstown score written across the top. And Williamstown's scarecrow contest got a skeleton Dolly Parton. Over at the Deptford mall, somebody's ferret rode the escalator on his shoulder.

The top edge of a worn one-dollar bill with 1986 - Glassboro 40 Williamstown 3 handwritten across it in ink.

Glassboro and Williamstown · Reddit

"Interesting $1 bill from 1986"

This dollar has bragged about Glassboro 40, Williamstown 3 since 1986, and Williamstown wants it spent. Reddit

via u/lilgreentomato

A skeleton scarecrow dressed as Dolly Parton, in sunglasses, a white cowboy hat and a pink fringe jacket, holding a white guitar on a sunny sidewalk.

Williamstown (Monroe) · X

"Hello Dolly!!"

Williamstown's scarecrow contest got a skeleton Dolly in pink fringe, and she's holding up better than I am. X

via @DrewForecast

A man films himself riding a mall escalator and walking past storefronts with a white ferret perched on his shoulder, under the on-screen line about holding it down at the Deptford mall.

Deptford · Instagram

"Not everyone can be in New York or LA"

Somebody's gotta hold it down at the Deptford mall, and that job went to a ferret. Instagram

via @roseandwinstonofficial

What's building

What's going up, getting paused, or getting fought over.

Election Day is next Tuesday, Nov 3, and the county's sample ballots don't show any public questions this year, so this one's short. Plus the last call to weigh in on the Dinosaur Trail between Rowan and the fossil park.

Pencil hatch drawing of a plain lidded box with a slot on a wooden table by a window, with a blank round sticker beside it.

Illustration by Buzz Artist

Countywide · Tue Nov 3 · polls 6am-8pm

Election Day in Gloucester County, and what's on the ballot

Election Day is next Tuesday, Nov 3, with polls open from 6am to 8pm. The county's election notice says in-person early voting started Oct 24 and runs through this Sunday, Nov 1. On the ballot are U.S. Senate and House seats, plus county commissioner and local races that vary by town. The county's sample ballots don't show any public questions this year, so the whole thing is offices. Short ballot, same 6am start. Gloucester County sample ballots · Election notice (PDF)

Dinosaur Trail title slide reading Welcome to Public Information Center #2, September 29, 2026, with the DVRPC and Gloucester County logos.

Image: Gloucester County / DVRPC via Mantua Township

Glassboro, Pitman and Mantua · comments close Fri Oct 30 · 11:59pm

Last call to comment on the Dinosaur Trail route

Gloucester County is planning the Dinosaur Trail, a walking and biking path from the shared-use path on Carpenter Street in Glassboro, through Pitman, to Mantua Boulevard and Edelman Fossil Park. At a Sept 29 public meeting, planners recommended a hybrid route that's mostly off-road and skips the Route 55 option. It also goes around Alcyon Park instead of through it. The Woodbury Warbler reports that some neighbors on Howard and South Cummings avenues still have privacy and safety worries about the trail behind their homes. It's still at the concept stage, with no construction date or cost set, and online comments close this Friday, Oct 30 at 11:59pm. Comment survey · Woodbury Warbler · Mantua Township

Makers

Local makers nights and market tables worth hitting.

No craft fairs land in this window, so I went with two places that make things by hand, or show off what this county used to make. One's a free glass museum in Glassboro, and the other is a Woolwich candy kitchen that just put out its Christmas list.

Pencil hatch drawing of clear antique bottles and jars in different shapes on three wooden shelves beside a window.

Illustration by Buzz Artist

Glassboro · Wed Oct 28 11am-2pm · Thu Oct 29 5-8pm · Sat Oct 31 11am-2pm · free

The Heritage Glass Museum on High Street

The Heritage Glass Museum, at 25 High Street East on the corner of Center Street, is a free, volunteer-run museum of glass made around here, with bottles from the late 1700s to the 1970s. The current show is commemorative bottles and decanters, including pieces by Clevenger Brothers from right down the road in Clayton. It's open three short windows a week, so the hardest part of this museum is the hours. Heritage Glass Museum

Caramel pouring from a funnel over trays of chopped nuts in a candy kitchen.

Photo: Damask's Candies

Woolwich · open daily · 2026 Christmas list out now · orders by phone or in store

Damask's Candies puts out its 2026 Christmas list

Damask's Candies, at 2255 Route 322 in Woolwich, says its family has been making candy by hand for more than a century, and Doug Damask is the third generation running the shop. The 2026 Christmas list is up on their website, with a 1-pound box of assorted chocolates for $25 and a 12-ounce bag of peanut brittle for $11. There's no online ordering, so you call 856-467-1661 or order in the store. Order early, and get two boxes of the chocolate covered crackers, because one never makes it home full. Christmas list (PDF) · Damask's Candies

Deep cut

One local history leftover worth knowing.

Pencil hatch drawing of Hollybush, a stone mansion with a tall square tower topped by a finial, small tower balconies, an arched front entry and gabled wings, with a tall pine at left, a bare young tree in front, leafy trees at right and a lawn.

Illustration based on a photo by BobGalasso (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Hollybush (Whitney Mansion) · Whitney Avenue on Rowan University's campus, Glassboro

Hollybush - the glassmaker's house in Glassboro where Johnson and Kosygin met halfway

If you've cut through Rowan's campus on Whitney Avenue, you've passed a dark stone house with a square tower. That's Hollybush, which glassmaker Thomas H. Whitney built in 1849, and in June 1967 it's where President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin sat down in the library to try to cool off the Cold War.

Hollybush only ended up on a campus because 107 neighbors chipped in to buy the Whitney land in 1917 and offered it to the state for a teachers' school. Fifty years later the college got 16 hours' notice that the world was coming to the president's house.

The full story has why Glassboro got picked as the halfway point, since the sources disagree on who wanted what, and a myth check on the "three-day summit."

Read the deep cut

Season

What's in the air right now. Farm stands, orchards, peak harvest.

Harbaugh Village has the Sanderson Sisters on Halloween and a full day Sunday. And the corn maze at Mood's closes on Halloween, so this Saturday is your last shot.

Image: Harbaugh Village

Mullica Hill (Harrison) · Sat Oct 31 10am-2pm (Sanderson Sisters noon-2pm) · Sun Nov 1 10am-6pm · $15.95 online, $19.95 at the gate

Fall Funland at Harbaugh Village

Harbaugh Village, at 126 Bridgeton Pike, runs Fall Funland on weekends, with a corn maze and a 150-foot mega slide among a long list of stuff to climb on. Halloween is a short day, 10am to 2pm, and the Sanderson Sisters are there from noon to 2. Sunday it's open 10 to 6. Tickets are $15.95 online for a set day or $19.95 at the gate. Get there for the Sanderson Sisters and let the mega slide wear the kids out before trick-or-treat. Tickets

Pencil hatch drawing of a dirt path running between tall rows of corn, with a wooden hay wagon piled with hay on one side and a cluster of small pumpkins on the other.

Illustration by Buzz Artist

Mullica Hill (Elk Twp) · corn maze through Sat Oct 31 · closed Sundays

The last days of the corn maze at Mood's Farm Market

Mood's Farm Market, at 901 Bridgeton Pike, opened its corn maze at the Apple Festival in September, and the farm says it stays open until Halloween. October pumpkin hayrides end with cider and a donut. Mood's is closed Sundays and closes for the season on Nov 7, so the maze is a this-week thing. Go for the maze and stay for the donut. Mood's Farm Market

See you at the farm stand.

Gloucester County Buzz · written from around here · Tuesday mornings

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