Beautiful and artificial, the 100-acre lake on Burlington Island embodies the sort of complexities that for centuries have helped make this storied piece of South Jersey real estate alluring, inspiring—and a periodic source of controversy.

The western shore of the verdant, uninhabited Delaware River island is 1,000 feet from downtown Bristol Borough, Bucks County. The eastern shore is just 400 feet from the heart of Burlington City, Burlington County.

But most local residents have never set foot on Burlington Island, because it lacks docks, electricity, and water and sewer service and has largely been inaccessible to the public for nearly 50 years. Many in the Philadelphia region aren't aware it exists.

With more people joining collaborative efforts to clean up, preserve, and showcase the Burlington City-owned island, however, support for more public access is growing.

"There's over a 95% consensus that the future of the island is passive recreation such as hiking, biking, camping," said Jim McCreary, president of the elected Board of Island Managers. The board oversees Burlington Island for the city, which owns the property and ordered it closed, with exceptions, in 2012.

"The island has always fascinated me, and I love being here," said Michele Sarnes, a first-time visitor on a guided tour last weekend.

The tours were part of an event marking the 400th anniversary of the first European settlement on what until then had long been hunting and fishing grounds for the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape people.

Dozens of volunteers from organizations such as the board of managers, the Lyceum Hall Center for the Arts, the Friends of Burlington Island, and the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania participated in the event, which attracted 300 people. Most either hiked or took boat tours around the perimeter of the island.

"People are realizing who we are now, and they're trying to do the right thing to recognize the original people of the land," said Chief Barbara Bluejay Michalski of the Lenape Nation, which is headquartered in Easton, Pa.

"We don't want to be a bucket list [item], but we're grateful to be involved."

Five miles of trails created and maintained by volunteers thread beneath the dense tree canopy of the place the Lenape called Matinicunk (Island of Pines).

"The goal is to have the island opened up responsibly," said Burlington Mayor Barry Conaway.

"There are no plans for major development, beyond enhancing [access to] the nature that is already there," the mayor said.

"'The island definitely needs to be protected."

An island with a community benefit requirement

In 1710, the European settlement on what had been Lenape land—and is now Burlington City—gained title to Burlington Island.

Picnic grounds and amusement parks were built along the western shore in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The city earned revenue from the agricultural, industrial, entertainment, and summer cottage operations that rented land there; by law, any such revenue was to be used only for public education.

The city built a half dozen schools with island revenue. Separately, it built eight artesian wells to tap into the pure water of the aquifer beneath the island. An AM radio station even built facilities there.

The wells have been capped and the station is off the air. But developers, planners, and dreamers remain beguiled by Burlington Island.

"Some people believe it even has healing powers," McCreary said.

Friends president Patrick Mulhern, who lives in Bristol, ferried hikers to and from the island on his pontoon boat Oct. 12, explaining the sights and the history along the way.

"We want people to know what the value of the island is, how special the island is, but to also respect how dangerous the river can be," he said.

'Highly contested' election ahead

The seven-elected-member board of managers has 17th-century roots, was officially established after a town meeting on March 11, 1728, and was granted a charter by the New Jersey legislature on March 10, 1852.

The charter, and its requirement that revenue generated by the island be earmarked for the education of the city's children, remains.

On Nov. 5, candidates for two open seats on the managers board will be on the Burlington City ballot, including veteran incumbent Joe Abate, as well as Dave Babula and newcomers Sean Foreman and Carter Patterson.

Abate's effort to have Patterson's name taken off the ballot for allegedly not meeting a city residency requirement was dismissed by Burlington County Superior Court Judge John E. Harrington in September.

"We have a highly contested election coming up," said McCreary.

"I'm running because we have to bring financial stability back to the board," said Abate, 75, an insurance broker who has served as a manager for decades.

"We have to have more opportunities for the children in the city to earn scholarships and internships," he said.

Foreman, 47, works in disability services and is making his first run for the board. "While a lot of good has come from the island, there's more that can be done," he said

"I feel that the island can better serve the people of Burlington City."

Babula, a former Burlington City Council member, is an independent insurance consultant making his first bid for a board seat.

"I want students in the city to have as many opportunities for scholarships and internships as possible," said Babula, adding that he will bring "a vision for problem-solving" to the board.

Patterson could not be reached.

So close, yet so far—and far from pristine

During the 20th century, Burlington Island was twice eyed as a crossover point for proposed bridges, including the Burlington-Bristol and the NJ/PA turnpike connector.

Other suggestions, including construction of an airport, a community college, and high-rises, were floated and then sank from sight in the 1950s and '60s. More recently, a luxury golf course, as well as a facsimile of a Lenni-Lenape "village," also fizzled.

Nevertheless, the island is far from a pristine paradise. There are 45,000 pounds of discarded appliances and oil drums that need to be cleared. And large swaths of the island reflect human intrusion.

Local newspaper accounts, as well as a 1972 booklet by Henry H. Bisbee that is regarded as authoritative, indicate that the lake exists because of sand-mining. This led to flooding that created the lake but obliterated former locations of Lenni-Lenape activity, as well as a trading post established by the Dutch, who arrived on the island in 1624.

The last regular human habitation of the island ended in 1979, after the city evicted 80 tenants of a colony of summer homes, many of them hand-built by working-class residents from either side of the river.

Dredge spoils are still on the table

The lake is not the only product of human activity that has helped create modern Burlington Island. Dredge spoils deposited on what had been marshland on the southern end of the island, and on wooded areas on the northern end, have long since blended into the landscape.

Although elected local and state officials have long sought to permanently bar additional dredge spoil dumping on Burlington Island, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said recently that the corps "does not have plans to place dredged material there within the next several years, however, it is not out of the question that it could be needed sometime in the future."

In a statement, N.J. State Sen. Troy Singleton (D., Burlington) said, "Burlington Island is a natural treasure in our legislative district, and it should not be used as a dumping ground for dredge spoils."

Looking ahead

Following the Oct. 12 event, McCreary said that "members of diverse communities, including Indigenous people, are working together and focusing" on the same goal for the island, and beyond.

"I really think we've turned a corner," he said.

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