Mullica River

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mullica River northwest of Lake Atsion

Mullica River

The Mullica River is a river, approximately 55 miles (90 km) long, in southern New Jersey in the United States. The Mullica was once known as the Little Egg Harbor River.

The river provides one of the principal drainages into the Atlantic Ocean of the extensive Pinelands. Its estuary on Great Bay is considered one of the least-disturbed marine wetlands habitats in the northeastern United States.

It rises in central Camden County, near Berlin, on the southwestern fringes of the New Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia. It flows generally ESE across the state, crossing the Wharton State Forest. At Batsto Village it broadens into a long navigable estuary, approximately 20 miles (32 km) long, stretching East Southeast and emptying into Great Bay approximately 10 miles (16 km) north of Atlantic City. Approximately 3 miles (5 km) upstream from its mouth on Great Bay it receives the estuary of the Wading River from the north. Approximately 2 miles (3 km) upstream from its mouth it receives the Bass River from the north.

The estuary is traversed by the Garden State Parkway near its mouth. The lower reaches of the river form an extensive wetlands area and is protected on its southern bank as a National Wildlife Refuge. The river is noted as a spawning ground for striped bass.

The river is named for after Eric Pålsson Mullica, an early Finnish settler born in 1636 who founded a homestead on the river after moving there from the vicinity of Philadelphia. The settlement was located about 15 miles (24 km) upstream from the mouth near present-day Lower Bank.