[1] The CDP was named after United States Senator William Joyce Sewell.

Sewell is also the site of the Inversand marl pit, the last operational greensand mine in the world.

The location has become renowned for its paleontology and is similar to many of the sites studied by early paleontologists, particularly Edward Drinker Cope.

[9] Tall Pines State Preserve is a 111-acre (45 ha) nature preserve that opened in November 2015 as Gloucester County's first state park and is located along the border of Deptford Township and Mantua Township.

Originally a forest that was turned into an asparagus field and then a golf course, the land was preserved through the efforts of the South Jersey Land and Water Trust, the Friends of Tall Pines, Gloucester County Nature Club, and the New Jersey Green Acres Program.