A water-powered sawmill dominated the early years at Double Trouble, where harvesting and milling Atlantic White Cedar for ship building and for barrel and shingle making led to the first settlement. By the early 1900, years of uncontrolled timber harvesting had left exposed depressions and bogs throughout the Pinelands, and cranberry farming provided a way to reclaim the land’s economic usefulness. In July 1909, Edward Crabbe and Albert and George Bunker assembled over 1500 acres of bog and timberland and incorporated the Double Trouble Company. The company expanded between 1910 and 1926, planting more than 225 acres with new cranberry vines. Mill Pond Bog became the largest operating cranberry bog in the state and made the Double Trouble Company one of New Jersey’s ten largest cranberry producers. Today, the Double Trouble Historic District preserves 205 acres of cranberry bogs, the sawmill, the cranberry sorting and packing house, and the company village, a compact view of a self-contained early 20th century community that exemplifies the development of natural resource use in the Pinelands of New Jersey.
