170 to 200 million years ago - Atlantic Coastal Plain begins to form.

100 million years ago - Start of sequence in which the Atlantic Ocean repeatedly covered the coastal plain and then withdrew, depositing layers of geologic material now beneath the Pinelands.

10,000 years ago - End of the last Ice Age; present plant and animal populations begin to develop; earliest native Americans appear.

1624 - Exploration of coastal inlets and bays reported.

1674 - Earliest permanent European settlers occupy area north of present Burlington County line.

1760 - Many hamlets and coastal towns settled based on shipbuilding, commerce and timber-based trades.

1700 - present - transportation network, roads and railroads built throughout the Pinelands. U. S. Route 9, the Shore Road, is an historic road that runs along the coast in what is now the Pinelands National Reserve.

Brotherton Reservation, this country's first Indian reservation, is established at Indian Mills in Shamong Township, Burlington County.

1860 - Iron, charcoal, and glass industries flourish.

1830 - New Jersey census lists 655 sawmills in the state; today there are about 75 sawmills in the state

1840 - John Webb establishes New Jersey's first cranberry bog in Ocean County near Cassville.

1864 - L.N. Renault Winery established in Galloway Township.

1878 - Joseph Wharton, a Philadelphia financier, proposes exporting Pinelands water to Philadelphia. The New Jersey legislature rules against this.

1905 - New Jersey State Forest Service established.

1916 - Elizabeth White of Whitesbog, Burlington County, in cooperation with Dr. F. V. Coville of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, develops the first cultivated blueberry.

1917 - Fort Dix, U.S. Army training base in Burlington and Ocean Counties, is the first major federal facility established in the Pinelands.

1920's - Medford Lakes, Burlington County, is developed as a summer colony with many of its buildings designed in a log cabin style.

1926- The first State Forest Nursery for growing tree seedlings for sale to landowners throughout New Jersey is established.

1928 - Emilio Carranza, a Mexican aviator on the return leg of a goodwill flight between Mexico and New York, dies in a Pinelands airplane crash. A memorial to him is located on Carranza Road in Tabernacle Township, Burlington County.

1929 - 1941 - The Blue Comet, New Jersey Central's luxury coach train, provides service between New York and Atlantic City and stops at Pinelands towns like Lakewood, Lakehurst, and Hammonton.

1930's - Russian immigrants settle at Rova Farm in Jackson Township, Ocean County. This is one of several ethnic settlements located in the Pinelands today.

1948 - A program of prescribed burning, a practice that is continued today, is established in New Jersey.

1955 - State of New Jersey acquires 100,000-acre Wharton Tract as state forest.

1963 - A series of wildfires in the Pinelands burns over 183,000 acres during the weekend of April 20-21. This is the largest wildfire in the recorded history of the region.

1978 - Section 502 of the National Parks and Recreation Act establishes the Pinelands National Reserve.

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