[4][5] A section of the Pine Barren Plains, a globally rare dwarf forest ecosystem that reaches a mature canopy height of about 4 ft (1.2 m), is located in the northeastern portion of the park.

A large-scale military exercise involving a division of army troops from Fort Dix participated in a mock invasion in 1941, prior to the US entry to World War II.

In 1971, a supersonic jet on military bombing practice runs crashed through the park's fire lookout tower creating a 1 mi (1.6 km) long path of destruction.

In 1978, the federal government designated the New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve, further protecting Penn, Wharton, and Byrne state forests as well as all the surrounding Pine Barrens from future development efforts.

The CCC workers at Penn State Forest consisted solely of African Americans since construction crews were segregated during that era.

[2] In the spring of 1941, prior to the US entry to World War II, a five-day military exercise involving 16,000 army troops from Fort Dix participated in a mock invasion that occurred near the coastal areas of the state.

[7] In the late 1950s, a large airport was proposed by Burlington County officials to be constructed in the Pine Barrens, mainly to serve New York and Philadelphia.

The plan included filling in Oswego Lake to make it a runway as just one small part of a supersonic jetport with four times the combined capacity of Newark, LaGuardia, and JFK airports.

Eventually, environmental concerns about the project led to the federal protection of the Pine Barrens as a National Reserve in 1978, after airport proposals that had lasted for two decades.

[3] The upper stretches of the generally slow-flowing Oswego River, along the Papoose Branch at the east end of the lake, can be explored by canoe and kayak.