One of the great recurring stories of the Jersey Pine Barrens is the many attempts to profit from them, whether it’s from natural resources such as timber, iron and water or its remoteness. It was the remoteness that in the early 1880s drew the United States Dynamite Co. to erect a production facility 3 miles west of Toms River. It also allowed the company to operate in a manner that led to numerous explosions. It would bury its dead, rebuild and start over.

The accidents became so common that newspapers barely took notice, but occasionally one stood out. On Dec.