New Jersey man makes it his mission to preserve piney culture

A New Jersey man has taken it upon himself to preserve piney history and culture.

William Lewis says he is the son and grandson of some of the last generation of true pineys – people who lived off the land in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, picking pine cones and other products for the New York and Philadelphia flower markets.

“My dad was a piney in transition. Remembering old things and old ways of going out and shooting pine cones. We did that whenever he wasn’t working,” says Lewis.

Lewis wrote a book called “Adventure with Piney Joe”. It features a cartoon version of a hand-stitched gnome Lewis’ wife gave him for Christmas two years ago. The book guides readers to the best places to visit across the Pine Barrens.

“I took [the gnome] in the woods with me and everyone loved the pictures of him in the woods, in the pines,” Lewis says.

The idea for the book came during the pandemic when he met many people visiting the Pine Barrens for the first time but had no idea where to go.

Lewis’ earlier book, New Jersey’s Lost Piney Culture, explores what it means to be a piney then and now, now that that culture is long gone.

“There were a lot of negative stereotypes floating around about what pineys were,” Lewis says.

The word “piney” was long considered a pejorative term after early 20th-century eugenicists attempted to use the region’s backwoods dwellers as examples of their discredited pseudoscientific theories. The term was embraced by locals with their “piney pride” bumper stickers. Lewis describes 10 types of modern pineys, from the tree hugger piney – the conservationists whose work protected the pines, to the fireman piney, to the patriotic piney.

“We all learn something from each other, no matter what type of piney you are,” Lewis says.

Both of Lewis’s books are available on Amazon and in local bookstores.