Abandoned Towns
Black-and-white photo of a tall ruined stone wall with empty window openings among trees at Harrisville, 2013

Mill, lumber and company town

Harrisville

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 Pinelands Alliance's account.

39°39′41″N 74°31′19″W · ≈20 ft

Photo: Rtsanderson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

State forest · ruins fenced

A visit video posted in June 2026 shows the stone mill walls still standing among the trees, some marked with graffiti. An NJspots post of January 2023 describes a short trail to them from a small park at CR 679 and Bodine Field Road, and a fence put up in the 1970s. The Pinelands Alliance's undated guide also says the paper mill ruins in Wharton State Forest are fenced off for safety and preservation, and asks visitors not to remove, move or damage anything. Check with the forest office at 609-561-0024 before a special trip.

Overview

A company town that made paper

Harrisville sits where CR 679 crosses the Oswego River, about seven miles northwest of New Gretna in the southern Pine Barrens. Water power brought people here. A sawmill stood by 1760, and in 1795 Isaac Potts built a slitting mill that cut iron into strips for nails. Around 1815 it was turned into a paper mill.

The Harris family bought the mill in 1855 and gave the town their name. They ran it as a company town, with a gristmill, a store, a post office and free houses for the mill hands. The Pinelands Alliance says the town was abandoned in 1891, when the mill went out of business.

Wikipedia says a fire destroyed what was left in 1914. The mill ruins stand in Wharton State Forest, and the Pinelands Alliance describes them as fenced off for safety and preservation.

Timeline

Sawmill, slitting mill, paper mill

WPA work on the Oswego River at the CR 679 crossing near Harrisville, June 1939
WPA work on the Oswego River at the CR 679 crossing near Harrisville, June 1939 · Photo: USGS personnel (submitted by Bob Schopp, New Jersey), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  1. Evi Belangee builds a sawmill and a dam near the mouth of the Oswego River, the first known industry here.
  2. Isaac Potts enlarges the dam and builds a slitting mill to cut iron sheet into strips for nails. Wikipedia dates the settlement from this year.
  3. Potts, who has just built Martha Furnace upstream, sells it and notes that its pig iron has a natural market at the slitting mill.
  4. The slitting mill, never very successful, becomes a paper mill, fed by a canal from a dam on the Oswego. The town is called McCartyville after the mill's owner.
  5. The Harris family buys the mill and renames the town Harrisville. They run it as a company town with a gristmill, post office, store and free houses for workers.
  6. The paper mill goes out of business and the town is abandoned, by the Pinelands Alliance's account.
  7. A fire destroys what is left of the town, Wikipedia says, leaving only ruins.
  8. In June a WPA crew works on the Oswego River at the CR 679 crossing. On August 20 a flood covers the road, though a dam has stood above it since 1932.

What's left

The mill walls

Ruined stone walls at Harrisville, 2013
Ruined stone walls at Harrisville, 2013 · Photo: Rtsanderson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The main sight is the ruin of the paper mill. An undated listing adds crumbling foundations and canal remnants under dense undergrowth. The Pinelands Alliance says the mill ruins are fenced off, so expect to look at them from outside the fence. An NJspots writer who visited, in a post of January 2023, describes towering walls a short walk from a small park on CR 679, behind a fence put up in the 1970s. A visit video posted in June 2026 shows the walls and arches still standing, some marked with graffiti. Our only freely licensed photo of them was taken in 2013.

The 1890 USGS sheet below marks Harrisville below its pond on the Oswego, with a mill race running northwest and Martha, an iron furnace town of 1793 to 1845, upstream. The 1956 sheet labels the spot "Ruins" and shows a stream gaging station beside it.

  • Paper mill walls
  • Building foundations
  • Canal remnants
  • Harrisville Lake and dam
USGS topographic map of Harrisville on CR 679 at Harrisville Lake
USGS The National Map, topo. The townsite sits on CR 679 below the dam of Harrisville Pond.
Aerial view of the Harrisville area: a road through pine forest beside a lake
Aerial imagery, same area. The road runs past the lake through unbroken pine forest.

Historic maps

Harrisville on USGS maps, 1890–1956

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Harrisville, 1890
Mullica sheet, 1890, 1:62,500 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

New Gretna, on US 9, is the closest town, about 15 minutes away on CR 679. From Philadelphia, the route runs out NJ 70 and NJ 72 and down CR 563 through the forest.

USGS topographic map between New Gretna and Harrisville with the route drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From New Gretna7.4 miabout 13 min
  1. From New Gretna, head north on US 9.0.6 mi
  2. Turn right on North Maple Avenue (CR 679) and follow CR 679 (Chatsworth Road) north to Harrisville, near Bodine Field Road.6.7 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • The Trail Conference says there is room for several cars to park along CR 679 at Harrisville.
  • Sand roads lead off into the forest. Drive only roads on the state's Visiting Vehicle Use Map, at up to 20 mph.
  • The Pinelands Alliance describes the mill ruins as fenced. Stay outside the fence and don't remove anything.
  • There are no trash cans in Wharton State Forest, and the state advises repellent and tick checks.

Photos

Harrisville in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Harrisville?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Harrisville

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our New Jersey index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Harrisville": fact sheet fields (county, roads, climate, best time, remains).
  2. Wikipedia, "Harrisville, New Jersey", retrieved October 2026: mills and dates, Isaac Potts and Martha Furnace, names, Harris company town, 1914 fire, 1939 flood and WPA work.
  3. Pinelands Alliance, "Pine Barrens Ghost Towns": abandonment in 1891, ruins fenced off, Martha Furnace dates, location in Wharton State Forest (undated page, read October 2026).
  4. Sue Fajgier, NJspots, "Explore These 4 South Jersey Abandoned Spots", January 30, 2023: the small park at CR 679 and Bodine Field Road, the short trail, the towering walls and the fence put up in the 1970s.
  5. that nj urban explorer, "Exploring the Ruins of Harrisville!", YouTube, posted June 19, 2026: the stone mill walls and arches standing among trees, some with graffiti.
  6. New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, "Wharton State Forest": roadside parking on CR 679.
  7. NJ State Parks, "Wharton State Forest", (updated May 28, 2026; Internet Archive copy of June 18, 2026): vehicle rules, no trash cans, ticks, office phone.
  8. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits