Saw Mill Ponds, Inc
For 170 years, Lake Fred and its surrounding lands were used for industry. Its natural resources, namely waterpower and trees, supported a sawmill, charcoaling, tar kilns, and cranberry production. The abandonment of the cranberry bog in the early 1940s marked the end of this industrial period. The old bog lay fallow for nearly a decade and a half until 1954, when a group from Atlantic County saw an opportunity. Paul Burgess (president), Elwood Kirkman (treasurer), Tom Glenn, Hobie Hanson and Walter Clark formed Saw Mill Ponds, Inc. and purchased the land and additional parcels over the course of several years amounting to 612 acres.
The old cranberry bog became a lake for recreational use, and Saw Mill Ponds, Inc. constructed five cabins along the north shore - one for each family - as well as an island across from what is now Lakeside Lodge.
In 1964, the Saw Mill Ponds, Inc. property was considered as a possible site for what is now Atlantic Cape Community College. The college was interested in purchasing two hundred acres, but decided against the idea principally because of unsatisfactory access to local roads. As a result, Saw Mill Ponds, Inc. opted to purchase ten adjoining acres that had frontage on Jimmie Leeds Road to solve the road access problem and thereby enhance sales potential.
This tactic worked, as the Stockton Board of Trustees voted at their Sept. 15, 1969 meeting to choose this tract as the core site for the college campus. Soon after the groundbreaking ceremony, the Stockton campus began to take shape, and education replaced industry and leisure as the area鈥檚 key function.
