Cumberland: Glass, History and Nature

Glassmaking and pottery, maritime history, museums, and nature shape the themes that make a trip to Cumberland interesting. Depending on how you want to focus your stay, you can explore craft demonstrations, historical stories, rivers, or a go-kart track. The differences between these offerings give your planning a clear direction, without requiring you to experience culture and activities in the same way.

Glass, Local History, and Maritime Themes

WheatonArts is home to the Museum of American Glass and offers daily glassmaking and pottery demonstrations. This brings the material and craft processes together with the museum’s focus on American glass. If you are interested in how things are made, the demonstrations provide a distinct focus; the museum broadens the perspective on glass. You can take both aspects into account when planning your trip without conflating them with other historical themes.

The Delaware Bay Museum is dedicated to the history of New Jersey’s Bayshore region. Its features include a collection of original artifacts, and it is housed in historic oyster shipping sheds. Its regional focus and location in the former oyster storage sheds offer two distinct points of reference for a museum visit: the history of a region and a historic building. This is a different perspective from the demonstrations at WheatonArts, which focus on glassmaking and pottery.

The AJ Meerwald also combines a maritime connection with an educational role. Its home port is in Bivalve, New Jersey, and the Bayshore Center at Bivalve uses the schooner as a floating classroom. Raw oysters are served at Bayshore Center events on the second Friday of each month from April through December. If you want to include this seasonal offering in your plans, check the specific event date.

Museums, Architectural History, and Technology

The Millville Army Air Field Museum tells the stories of the people who trained or died there, as well as those who served in World War II and other wars. Tours of the museum and its grounds can be arranged. If a tour fits your plans, you can arrange one in advance; it should be understood as an option that can be booked, not as an impromptu tour that is automatically available.

East Point Lighthouse was built in 1849 and is a relatively rare example of a lighthouse with an integrated keeper’s house and tower. Historically, the lighthouse served to guide ships into and out of the Maurice River. Its design and navigational history offer two concrete ways to understand the structure: the combination of living quarters and tower, and its former role in shipping.

The New Jersey Motorsports Park offers a distinctly different activity, with its 1.1-mile go-kart track and eight configurations. The track length and number of configurations describe different aspects of the facility: a fixed length and several track layouts. This makes the go-kart track a distinct motorsports focus alongside museums and historic buildings.

Rivers, Nature, and Wildlife

The Nature Trail at WheatonArts is a one-mile loop. Its clearly defined length distinguishes it from the broader figures for the Maurice River system. The Maurice River and its three tributaries—the Manumuskin, Menantico, and Muskee Rivers—were designated Wild and Scenic Rivers by the U.S. Congress and President Clinton on December 1, 1993. A total of 35.4 miles of the river system is designated scenic or recreational. These figures refer to the designated system; they do not describe the same type of trail as the Nature Trail.

The Cohanzick Zoo is New Jersey’s first zoo. It features more than 100 individual animals from 47 different species in 25 separate exhibits. These figures describe different aspects of the zoo: the number of animals, the variety of species, and the number of exhibits. For your trip planning, the zoo complements the nature and river themes with a specific focus on wildlife.

Discover more destinations: Bridgeton, Millville, Fairfield Township, Warren, Somerset, Mercer, Monmouth, Burlington.

For the broader travel overview: New Jersey.