Pines Lake, New Jersey

About

Pines Lake is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located on a lake in Wayne, in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 census, Pines Lake had a population of 3,033. Pines Lake was started in the 1920s as a vacation community around a man-made lake approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long and 0.5 miles (0.80 km) wide. Many of the original homes were modified log cabins. A large number of these log cabins, built of American chestnut in the 1930s, are still occupied as year-round homes. Gradually the neighborhood became approximately 500 high end to moderate suburban homes. It has a grammar school, Pines Lake School and its residents send their high-school-aged children to Wayne Hills High School.

An interesting feature of the lake is the one lane road that passes over the dam, giving a view down into "the Glen", a steep sided ravine which is maintained as a park. There are rare tiger salamanders and native ferns. Marine fossils have occasionally been found in the Glen and on properties surrounding the lake. An undeveloped area near the southern end of the lake has long been believed to contain an Indian burial ground.