Jungle Habitat

Welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games

And cages, and lots of abandoned paths through the woods.

We got everythin you want, honey we know the names…

Peacock, tiger, wolf, owl…

We are the people that can find, whatever you may need

How about a way out?

If you got the money honey we got your disease

Rabies?

Me and Nicky took it upon ourselves to venture up to West Milford, probably the creepiest town in NJ, and found, near the airport, the remnants of an abandoned “drive-through-zoo” called Jungle Habitat.

The place was operated by two bumbling idiots and owned by Warner Brothers, opening it in the summer of 1972 and closing it Halloween weekend 1976. Contrary to popular belief, the park was not closed because some Isreali tourist got attacked by a pair of lions, no, it was closed because of poor attendance. It is true about the mauling tho, and also, a particularly dumb lady got bitten by a baby elephant… okay, who gets BITTEN by a baby elephant?

You can’t make this shit up.

Either way, it’s been left to rot for over thirty years now, and attracts all manner of hikers, backpackers, joggers, idiots who don’t leash their big dogs and let them run full speed at me and girlfriend, and people like us.

It’s really a great place to go, and it’s totally legit, nothing even remotely illegal about it. Beautiful scenery all around, my photos really do it no justice at all. Tiny rivers snake their way all about the place, asphalt cracks apart and trees grow out of what was once solid asphalt. It’s a beautiful thing. You can see the cages still, and hear the last of the exotic birds squawking in the trees.

You never would think that you’re still in New Jersey.

THIS is the way my Magellan GPS said was the best route there.

Dont sneeze







Before it started to rain

















Rain drops keep fallin on my head...


Gotta wonder how long THATS been there.


These are the dogs that went after me and Nicky. Stupid owners.


It all looks the same after a while, no wonder we got lost.
We weren't really lost, Nicky just found us shortcut back.

-AK

Old Bridge Nike Missile Silo

During the summer, me and Nicky visited one of NJ many relics of the Cold War: The Nike Missile silo down in Old Bridge.

Built in 1955 at beginning of the paranoid notions that the Soviet Union would use aircraft to drop a atomic weapon on New York City. This particular base was supposed to guard the southern approach to the Big Apple, and stood a silent watch until it was decommissioned in 1968.

Conflicting accounts say that the houses at the western end of Jake Brown Road –right before the pine forest- were abandoned shortly after the base was. However inspections of the HVAC systems on the inside of the trashed and razed houses defiantly don’t look like they’re 40 years old. If anything, the houses which have an identical layout and floor plan, with stuff on the inside probably no more than twenty to thirty years old.

The mile-long stretch of overgrown asphalt through the woods leading to the defunct command-control area is closed off by a rusted gate and a stop sign riddled with bullet holes.

Down the stretch, there was a large open area with small concrete structures and building foundations, and a steel trailer, all riddled with more bullet holes than someone who angered the NYPD.

Follow another sandy road and you get to yet another clearing; this one filled with… nothing. As a matter of fact, all the area around there consists of freshly laid sand and dirt roads with manhole covers. It looks like there the town is looking to redevelop the area.

By this time, it already being our second trip after spending a day at the beach, darkness was falling fast and we opted to get out of there.
Then it started to rain.

Soaked to the bone, we dried off in the Avenger and headed back to Manasquan.
Later we learned that the missile ‘magazine’ and launch tube are buried under the school-bus depot at the more populated end of Jake Brown Road, and the only time to see it is when all the buses are out doing their job.






























One thing I noticed was that with all the bullet holes in the stuff around there, where was all the shell casings? I found a single spent 12 gauge shotgun shell, with with the literally thousands of entry and exit holes in everything metal, who seriously shoots off all that ammo into stuff and then picks up their brass?

-AK