The Jersey Devil, Ghost Towns & More: Take a Spooky tour of nJ
By: Dina Cheney
Abandoned towns, wilderness, even a monster—New Jersey has it all when it comes to the fixtures of fright. “Hollywood has made vampires, ghosts and even serial killers sexy,” said Jane McLaughlin, artistic director for Haunted History Productions, a New Jersey-based ghost tour and spooky entertainment company. “And New Jersey has more of these myths and legends than any other part of the country. A lot of action has taken place in a very small state.”
Over the years, many writers have set spooky stories here. Caitlin Mullen’s new thriller, Heather, takes place within the New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve, familiarly known as the Pine Barrens. “With fiction, I always start with setting, and for me there is something so evocative about the New Jersey Pine Barrens,” said Mullen. “The landscape is so unique and particular, and the sense of isolation you feel in some parts of the Pine Barrens made it seem like an ideal place to set a mystery novel.”
In time for Halloween, there are local haunts to reach by car, with destinations in the Pine Barrens, the Jersey Shore, Central Jersey, and North Jersey. (Just heed road closures, parking rules, notrespassing signs, and stick to marked trails and public roads.) Or, if you’d rather explore without leaving home, we’ve included books, movies, and TV shows set within state borders.
The Pine Barrens
New Jersey is the most densely populated state. Yet, improbably, 22% of its land area is taken up by the Pinelands, which Mullen described as “equal parts beautiful and eerie.” Spanning more than one million acres, this stretch of forests, cranberry bogs, and cedar swamps is believed to shelter one apocryphal resident: the Jersey Devil.
One legend tied to its creation involves Daniel Leeds (1651-1720), a publisher whose political beliefs and interest in astrology antagonized his Quaker neighbors. According to another story, in 1735, a pregnant woman cursed her unborn child. The infant transformed into a devil-like creature and disappeared into the woods.
Throughout the years, there have been many alleged sightings. According to one story, in 1820, Napoleon Bonaparte’s older brother, Joseph, said he’d spotted the creature near his estate. In 1909, newspapers reported hundreds of appearances. By 1982, the monster had become more mascot than menace: fans voted to name the state’s National Hockey League team the New Jersey Devils in its honor.
Along with sheltering this chilling creature, the Pine Barrens is home to several “ghost towns.” Batsto Village, located in Wharton State Forest in Hammonton, grew around an iron works in the 1700s, then became a glassblowing town and, later, a farming and milling community. It’s now a preserved historic site with a 36- room Victorian mansion, sawmill, and post office. Amatol (near Hammonton) features a World War I munitions factory and a wooden racetrack built in the 1920s. Double Trouble Village in Bayville includes the remnants of a cranberry packing house, schoolhouse, and sawmill.
“Many of the abandoned factories of the Pine Barrens give off a creepy feel, particularly the Brooksbrae Brick Company,” said Mullen. Incorporated in 1905, the factory in Manchester Township was abandoned in 1915 after a fire. “The history there is rife with spooky stories and bad blood,” Mullen added. “The remains of the factory buildings are riddled with graffiti, so you feel as though you are walking through layers of human creations, some a century old and others more recent. That sense of human presence in the middle of the woods contributes to an unsettling vibe.”
An abandoned prison is arguably even more unsettling. During the Revolutionary War, George Washington and the Continental Army spent more time in New Jersey than any other colony, according to New Jersey’s tourism board. One battle they fought was in Mount Holly. Along with historic architecture, the town features the Burlington County Prison Museum, which operated from 1811 until 1965.
The Jersey Shore
In Cape May, the country’s only National Historic Landmark City, the past lives on. Ocean fog shrouds the shore town in eeriness. After San Francisco, Cape May is home to the nation’s second-largest district of Victorian-style buildings. According to the town’s website, dozens of these preserved homes “have been documented to have ‘spirit’ residents” (the town assures visitors they are “friendly”). The 18-room stick-style Emlen Physick Estate, constructed in 1879, is a standout. Take the “Voices from Beyond House Tour,” which includes an evening trolley ride and a tour of the property, including “recorded audio and visual phenomena of unexplained presences” there. In nearby Asbury Park, visit the Paranormal Museum. Book one of its ghost tours, like the Haunted Pub Tour, which includes visits to bars “connected to Presidents, unsolved murders and tragic tales of love and loss.” Or explore the collection of creepy objects, among them Ouija boards, eerie dolls, historical photographs, life masks and a “singing couch.”
Northern New Jersey
According to folklore, the 4,500-acre Jenny Jump State Forest was named after a colonial settler’s daughter who leapt to her death. Compounding this creepiness, the woods include a trail called “Ghost Lake” whose trailhead is on Shades of Death Road. Ruins also dot this part of the state. Clinton Road in West Milford is a 10-mile public road that runs near the historic iron-industry sites, Clinton Furnace (at the base of Clinton Reservoir) and Long Pond Ironworks (in West Milford). The Van Slyke Castle ruins in Ramapo Mountain State Forest are accessible via the Castle Loop Trail. In 1959, a fire demolished most of a stone mansion built in 1910. According to legend, The Gates of Hell in Clifton, a graffitied network of storm drain tunnels, is associated with satanic activity. (Since trespassing is illegal, do not enter). Finally, lore holds that The Devil’s Tower in Alpine is haunted by a woman who jumped from the top. The truth is less dramatic: the former clock tower was part of a 200-acre estate built by a sugar baron in 1910.
Central Jersey
The center of the state includes fewer forbidding features—with three exceptions. Red Mill Museum Village in Clinton is a preserved former mill town from 1810 (the limestone quarry nearby began operating in 1844). Feltville on the Watchung Reservation in Berkeley Heights was settled in the 1730s. In 1845, it became a town centered around a printing factory and, later, a summer resort. The library system at Princeton University includes “The Laurence Hutton Collection of Life and Death Masks.” These 104 plaster masks of Walt Whitman, Abraham Lincoln, Beethoven, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and other noteworthy figures were donated by late 19th-century American essayist and theater critic Laurence Hutton. To view the 3D portraits, visit Princeton Special Collections.
Read:
New Jersey is the backdrop for these books and magazines.
• Heather; A Novel (Caitlin Mullen)
• Weird N.J.: Your Travel Guide to New Jersey’s Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets (Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman)
• The Jersey Devil (James F. McCloy and Ray Miller Jr.)
• The Secret History of the Jersey Devil: How Quakers, Hucksters, and Benjamin Franklin Created a Monster (Brian Regal and Frank J. Esposito)
• Savage Woods (Mary SanGiovanni)
• The Jersey Devil (Hunter Shea)
• The Legendary Pine Barrens (Paul Evans Pedersen, Jr.)
• Tell No One (Harlan Coben)
• On the Street Where You Live (Mary Higgins Clark)
Watch:
Many horror films and TV shows have been filmed here, according to New Jersey’s Motion Picture and Television Commission. Here are a few, including which parts of the state they showcase.
• The Amityville Horror (1979): Toms River
• Friday The 13th (1980): Camp No-Be-Bos-Co, Hope, Freehold and Blairstown
• Creepshow (1982): Island Beach State Park
• Cat’s Eye (1985): Atlantic City
• Jacob’s Ladder (1990): Forest Hill section of Newark
• Desecration (1999): Somerset, Essex and Passaic counties
• 13th Child: The Legend of the Jersey Devil (2002): Wharton State Forest at Batsto Village
• The Village (2004): Pedricktown
• War of the Worlds (2005): Ferry Street in Newark, Kennedy Boulevard in Bayonne
• Satan’s Playground (2006): Burlington County
• I Am Legend (2007): Mount Airy
• Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door (2007): Ridgewood and Fort Lee
• iMurders (2008): Hudson County
• Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor (2012) Camp Tamarack in Oakland
• Torture Chamber (2013): Lambert’s Castle in Paterson and the Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg
• Jersey Shore Massacre (2014): Seaside Heights, Newton, Sparta and Woodbridge
• The Unborn (2020): Jersey City
• Army of the Dead (2021): Atlantic City
• Human Hibachi 2 (2021): Mt. Holly
• Room 9 (2018): Pennington, Princeton
• Severance (2021): Bell Works building in Holmdel
• Servant (2021): Ocean City
• Knock at the Cabin (2022): Evergreen Dairy Bar in Southampton
• Insidious 5 (2022): Morristown, Chatham
• Smile (2022): Hudson and Essex County areas, Rutgers Medical School, the W Hoboken Hotel, Newark
• Becky 2 (2022): The Scotchwood Diner in Scotch Plains, Paterson
• Goodnight Mommy (2022): Bedminster
• The Walking Dead: Dead City (2022): Newark, Holmdel, Paterson, Franklin Lakes, West Orange, Hoboken, Bayonne, Plainfield, Jersey City and the Meadowland Arena in East Rutherford