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State hub · New Jersey
New Jersey's ghost towns are industrial villages, not mining camps. In the Pine Barrens of the south, bog iron was smelted in about 35 furnaces from 1765 until 1869, when ore mined in Pennsylvania proved cheaper; glassworks, paper mills and cranberry bogs rose alongside it. Batsto, Atsion, Harrisville and Martha each grew up around a furnace or mill on a Pine Barrens river, and all four now lie in Wharton State Forest. In the northern Highlands, Long Pond made iron from 1766 to 1882, and the Morris Canal, open from 1831 until it was abandoned in 1924, kept stopovers like Waterloo alive.
Two other forces emptied places. On the shore, storms wrecked South Cape May, which was dissolved as a borough in 1945. In the Delaware valley, the federal government acquired land from 1960, much of it by eminent domain, for the Tocks Island Dam, displacing about 15,000 people. The dam was canceled in 1978, and villages like Walpack Center now stand empty inside the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.
Because so many sites ended up in public hands, a lot survives: preserved villages at Batsto, Allaire and Whitesbog, Feltville's houses in a county park, and furnace and mill ruins in the woods. Some names, like Ong's Hat, were never more than a hut and live on mostly as legends.
Town guides
Our complete guides, most-read first: history, what's left, current access, photos, maps and directions.
Burlington County
A name on Pine Barrens maps since 1778. One writer described a rowdy village here, then took it back; a descendant of the Ong family said it was only…
GuideBurlington County
An iron town that cast cannonballs for Washington's army, then made glass, then became Joseph Wharton's country estate. The state keeps it as it…
GuideUnion County
A stationer's model mill town of the 1840s, then a summer resort, then empty. Union County keeps it as the Deserted Village, open to walk every day…
GuideCumberland County
A steamboat resort on the Delaware Bay that lost its hotels to fire, its tavern to Hurricane Gloria and its seawall to the waves. The state bought…
GuideSussex County
A stopover halfway along the Morris Canal that emptied when the canal died, came back as a museum village and concert ground, and closed again in…
GuideMiddlesex County
For a century and a half the head of navigation on the Raritan River had a busy port town. It is gone, buried under the lawns of Johnson Park, but a…
GuideOcean County
A lumber and cranberry company town on Cedar Creek, with its sawmill, packing house, school and workers' cottages still standing. New Jersey calls it…
GuideBurlington County
A paper mill town on the Oswego River that was abandoned in 1891 and burned in 1914. Its mill ruins stand in Wharton State Forest, fenced off by the…
GuideWarren County
A river landing at the most dangerous stretch of the Delaware, then a mill site, then a colony of summer cottages. Floods wrecked the cottages…
GuideBurlington County
An ironworks village in the Pine Barrens that failed, revived under the Richards family, and emptied again. Its 1826 mansion stands beside Atsion…
GuideMonmouth County
James P. Allaire's Howell Works smelted bog iron here for his New York steam engine shops, then went cold in the 1840s. Thirteen of its buildings…
GuidePassaic County
Iron from this furnace went to the Continental Army, the War of 1812 and the Union. The works shut in 1882 and the village of Hewitt faded after it.…
GuideSussex County
A crossroads village of white clapboard buildings in the Flat Brook valley, bought out for a reservoir that was never filled. The National Park…
GuideBurlington County
New Jersey's largest cranberry farm had its own village of cottages, a store, a school and a barrel factory, and 600 pickers each fall. The…
Watch
Ironmaking villages, furnace ruins, and a quiet stretch of the Morris Canal. Explore the history, maps and access notes before you go.
Where to start
Open attractions, living towns and true ruins, with their current status.
Burlington County
Iron town of 1766 that supplied Washington's army, then made glass, then became Joseph Wharton's estate. More than 30 buildings stand in Wharton State Forest; the grounds are open daily, dawn to dusk, with mansion tours typically Wednesday to Sunday.
Burlington County
Forge village of 1765 to 1766 on the Mullica River, rebuilt by the ironmaster Samuel Richards, whose 1826 mansion stands beside Atsion Lake. The grounds are free and open dawn to dusk; the state runs mansion tours on most weekends.
Burlington County
Paper mill town on the Oswego River, abandoned in 1891 when the mill went out of business; a fire in 1914 left only ruins. A June 2026 visit video shows the stone mill walls still standing, a short walk from CR 679 in Wharton State Forest; the Pinelands Alliance says they are fenced off.
Burlington County
Company village of what was once one of New Jersey's largest cranberry farms, where Elizabeth White and Frank Coville developed the cultivated blueberry. It stands in Brendan T. Byrne State Forest, leased to the Whitesbog Preservation Trust, which keeps it open daily, sunrise to sunset, with ticketed history hikes.
Monmouth County
James P. Allaire's Howell Works, bought in 1822, grew into a company town casting pig iron and pots. The village museum counts 400 people and dates the furnace's end to 1848; Wikipedia gives about 500 and 1846. Thirteen original buildings survive in Allaire State Park, with craft shops and homes open 11 to 4 from April through December: weekends by the museum's hours page, Friday to Sunday by its 2026 calendar.
Passaic County
Ironworks founded by Peter Hasenclever in 1766 that made iron for the Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Union Army until 1882. Furnace and casting-house ruins and water wheels stand in a state park near Hewitt; the Friends' museum opens weekends, 1 to 4, until the season closes on November 14.
Union County
David Felt's mill village of 1845, home to about 175 people in 1850, then the Glenside Park resort until 1916. Union County keeps it as the Deserted Village in the Watchung Reservation, open dawn to dusk; some houses are lived in, so stay off the porches.
Sussex County
Halfway stop on the Morris Canal, emptied after the canal was abandoned in 1924, restored as a museum village from 1967 and closed again in 2006. Allamuchy Mountain State Park is open sunrise to sunset. The Canal Society's museum opens on Saturdays, but its posted season, June 21 to October 25, matches 2025's calendar, and we found no 2026 dates.
Sussex County
Flat Brook valley farm village that declined in the 1900s; its land was later taken for the never-built Tocks Island Dam, and the Walpack Historical Society says no one has lived there in more than 30 years. The 1871 church, a schoolhouse of about 1856 and houses stand in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area; the Society opens its museum only on event days, next on December 12 and 13, 2026.
Near a city
Driving distance and time from downtown, routed over OpenStreetMap roads. Dirt roads are usually slower than the estimate.
Directory
Every town, camp and settlement in our New Jersey index, with its county. A ◦ marks sites already on the map.
No sites match. Try fewer letters or another county.
Plan a trip
Batsto, Atsion, Harrisville and the other Wharton State Forest sites sit among sand roads. Only roads on the state's Visiting Vehicle Use Map are legal to drive in the forest, at up to 20 mph, and ATVs are banned. Numbered routes reach the main villages: US 206 through Atsion, CR 542 to Batsto and CR 679 past Harrisville. There are no trash cans in the forest, so carry out what you bring.
Most grounds are open daily, but the buildings keep short hours. Batsto's mansion tours run typically Wednesday to Sunday, Atsion's on most weekends, and Allaire's shops and homes from April through December, on weekends or Friday to Sunday depending on which of its pages you read. Long Pond's museum closes for the season on November 14. Waterloo's canal museum opens on Saturdays, but its posted season is 2025's, so check before you go. Wharton State Forest advises insect repellent and a tick check when you get home.
Slag, bricks and old iron are part of the sites. In state parks and forests a metal detector needs a permit from the superintendent, and the state does not issue one for areas of significant historical value. In the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, federal rules ban possessing or using a metal detector unless it is packed away, and ban removing cultural resources. The Pinelands Alliance asks visitors not to move or take anything; Martha's furnace was buried and fenced to stop pillaging.
Walpack Center is reached on park roads, and several were closed in 2026. In May the park listed a closure of Old Mine Road north between Route 206 and Jager Road for repaving, Route 615 closed between Flatbrookville and Pompey Ridge for landslides, and the Main Street bridge in Walpack, between Walpack Center and Mountain Road, closed for structural damage. Check the park's current conditions page, or call 570-426-2452, before you go.
FAQ
No one has an agreed count. Wikipedia's list, which calls itself incomplete, names 11 places. The Pinelands Alliance says the Pine Barrens alone hold dozens of ghost towns and ruins, and lists ten of the most easily reached sites. Our index lists 39 sites; 29 of them are on our map so far, and 8 still lack a county. Burlington County, home of Wharton State Forest, has the most mapped sites.
For a full day, Batsto Village: more than 30 buildings in Wharton State Forest, open daily, with mansion tours most of the week. For an easy walk near New York, Feltville's Deserted Village in the Watchung Reservation. For real ruins, Long Pond Ironworks in Passaic County, where the trails past the furnace ruins are open daily.
From New York, Feltville is about 40 minutes and 24 miles by road, and Long Pond Ironworks and Waterloo Village are a little over an hour. From Philadelphia, Atsion and Ong's Hat are about 50 minutes, and Whitesbog and Batsto Village about an hour. These are routed estimates from downtown without traffic.
Yes. The village is on National Park Service land in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. The Walpack Historical Society says its church and Rosenkrans Museum open only during events it publicizes; its next listed museum opening is Walpack Christmas, December 12 and 13, 2026. The Park Service's 2025 page adds that volunteers staff the museum on summer Sundays as their schedules permit. Check the park's road closures first.
Yes, though little is left. Ong's Hat is a former village on Magnolia Road (CR 644) in Pemberton Township, at the northern end of the Batona Trail. A spot called Ong's appears on a 1778 map, and by 1936 only a clearing, a shed and bits of brick remained. The story of a hat stuck in a pine tree is a local legend, and the tale of scientists crossing into another dimension there is fiction that spread from the 1980s.
Abandoned