Spooky Season Reads

As Maynard grew from a scattering of small hill farms to a booming center of industry and immigration, much of its colorful history was nearly forgotten. With a rollicking collection of his essays, newspaper columnist David A. Mark uncovers the hidden gems of the town's history. Learn why Babe Ruth shopped in Maynard during his Red Sox days and what they fed the animals at the Taylor mink ranch. Find out who is buried--and who is not--in the Maynard family crypt and which rock 'n' roll bands recorded in the studio upstairs from Woolworths on Main Street. Almost lost to time, these remarkable moments in history helped shape Maynard into the vibrant community that it is today.

Did you know that the Dust Bowl hit New Jersey? Twice? How about that a mysterious experiment in subliminal advertising was conducted at a Fort Lee, New Jersey movie theater? Or that railroad communication was advanced on a northwest New Jersey railroad line? Or that America first heard about the Russians launch of Sputnik 2 (with a dog onboard) thanks to a Ukrainian refugee in Perth Amboy, New Jersey? Or that prisons could buy a custom electric chair from a Trenton, New Jersey electrician? Or that aviation matured into an industry thanks to Newark Airport? This book is a collection of articles from www.GardenStateLegacy.com, an online quarterly magazine devoted to New Jersey history that the author began in 2008. The Garden State features to some degree even as a footnote in larger historical stories far more often than one might think. It could just be a matter of someone from the state going on to something of historic importance somewhere else; or that by dumb luck something just happened to occur within its borders. New Jersey may be a footnote in these tangential tales, but they are the kind of unexpected connections that makes exploring New Jersey's history so delightful.