NJ Island Envisioned as Historical Theme Park

A developer is pushing ahead with plans to build a historical theme park on an uninhabited southern New Jersey island despite the possibility the state could use part of the island as a dumping spot for dredging from the Delaware River.

Four-hundred-acre Burlington Island sits in the Delaware just north of the Burlington-Bristol Bridge. It's been the focus of numerous development projects that haven't panned out over the years.

Mount Holly developer Karen Robbins says she plans to make the island into a replica of a 17th-century Indian village with a trading post and fort. Robbins tells The Philadelphia Inquirer it would be similar to Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts.

The island once was inhabited by Native Americans and was settled in the 1600s by the Dutch, followed by Swedes and English.  Robbins' company was chosen three years ago to develop the site. Plans have been drawn up and the company is focusing on raising money.

New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection could use the island as a depository for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers dredging of the river. The DEP is considering riverfront land in Palmyra, Cinnaminson and Beverly as well.

A DEP spokesman told the newspaper that 50 acres of Burlington Island were used for that purpose during dredging in the 1970s.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)