Seated majestically upon a hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, Highlands, one of New Jersey's most famous and romantic coastal towns, has served, in turns, as sanctuary, battlefield, resort destination, and home to generations of Americans, both immigrant and native. Its history, in many ways, mirrors the epic tale of America's evolution: an untamed wilderness yielding under the determination and sacrifice of a people laboring to create an enduring community--and in Highlands, they succeeded. Highlands, Ney Jersey chronicles this town's remarkable journey across four centuries of adventure, adversity, and prosperity, from the first New World explorers, such as Verrazano and Henry Hudson, to the present-day men and women who work, live, and play along these picturesque shores. This illustrated volume provides a rare glimpse into the Highlands of yesteryear and introduces readers to a cast of unique characters against a backdrop of major local and nation events, such as the Revolutionary War, the luxury era of Highlands in the nineteenth century, its incorporation in 1900, and the gold rush of 1948. Through these stories and their vivid images, the personality and charm of Highlands come to life, reminding today's residents and visitors why this setting has served as a source of inspiration for scores of writers, artists, and businessmen over the years.

Colts Neck, the Monmouth County township known by that name only since 1962, has witnessed a rapid pace of change in its recent past. The once-rural community has been adapting to suburbanization but longtime residents yearn to preserve memories of the municipality's heritage, and in particular, recollections of two well-known communities. Colts Neck's North American Phalanx was one of America's best-known, nineteenth-century cooperative communities, and as such has garnered the interest of philosophers and social scientists. In a completely different historical vein, Colts Neck embraces Scobeyville, widely known as the home of Laird's. Synonymous with New Jersey distilling, Laird's has produced the Apple Jack beverage for many years.

Homesteads and mansions, museums and memorials, lighthouses, a battlefield, historic districts and theatres, these are some of the sites that have shaped Monmouth County. These varied places are preserved for future generations through painstaking efforts and afford visitors a glimpse of what life was like in bygone eras. Two magnificent lighthouses guard the northern Monmouth coast, Sandy Hook, the nation's oldest, and Twin Lights, an architectural masterpiece. Imagine the pounding of cannons at Monmouth Battlefield State Park; Red Bank's most famous son is honored at the Count Basie Theatre and history lives at the Historic Village at Allaire. Prominent local historian Randall Gabrielan tells the history behind these and many more historic sites and landmarks in Monmouth County, New Jersey.

Everything you've ever wanted to know about the Garden State can now be found in one place. This encyclopaedia contains a wealth of information from New Jersey's prehistory to the present covering architecture, arts, biographies, commerce, arts, municipalities and much more.