Medford Lakes, NJ is an odd town. It has the quality of being landlocked as well as bordering only one other township. Populated by less than 3000 people this 1.2 square mile burough contains 22 individual lakes.
Medford Lakes is home of the annual Canoe Carnival, where lakefront property owners build floats, like those of Philadelphia's Mummer's parade, mount them on Canoes and float them around the lake. It is held on the first full moon of August. The floats are generally made of papier-mache and often have poorly produced looping soundtracks to go with the theme they display. Themes are generally inspired by popular media. This annual festivity often attracts such local celebrities as Howard Stern and Ritchie Sambora.(neither of these two people is actually from Medford Lakes)
Medford Lakes and it's one neighbor, Medford, are self-described as 'historic'. Medford Lakes was established as an independent municipality in 1939, when its residents elected to breakaway from Medford in order to set up the first sewage treatment plant in the area.
Medford Lakes' identity as a community, however, dates back to 1927 when the Medford Lakes Developement Company was founded. All of the 'historic' log cabins which Medford Lakes prides itself on, were built during the decades that followed the establishment of the Medford Lakes Developement Company. The local population of cedar trees was driven to near extinction due to this trend. The wood that wears of the exterior of these buildings drains into the precious lakes which, in combination with the iron-rich soil, stains the water brown.
Every The paved motorways that litter Medford Lakes are referred to as trails. This is intended to hint at a Native American heritage, which is ironic since the native americans of the region had been driven to extinciton over a century before white people inhabited the land that is now Medford Lakes. The primary reason no one lived in the area for so long was due to the fact that, had it not been for the dams recently built to distinguish each lake from its neighbors, the whole town would be a giant fly infested swamp. While it is not a swamp anymore, it is still over populated by mosquitoes.
Medford Lakes belongs in New Jersey. New Jersey belongs in the U.S.