NJ Pine Barrens ghost towns that made cannonballs

I’ve hiked at Batsto, canoed at Atsion and tubed at Weymouth.

Today they’re some of the best places in New Jersey to get outdoors. But a couple of hundred years ago, serious business was happening in those woods.

And my ancestors did the work.

A piney family

My dad traced one line of our family back to Great Britain in the 1500s. Over the centuries, they came to New Jersey and settled deep in the Pine Barrens: Manahawkin, Chatsworth, and even a spot in Woodland Township, off Route 72, called Johnson Place.

I grew up on the stories my dad told, and his dad before him.

One of them always stuck with me. There were pineys who made cannonballs, the story goes, and they didn’t much care which side they sold them to.

I couldn’t find that one in the history books. But I’ll bet you’ve heard a version of it too.

Iron in the swamps

The Pines had something both armies needed: bog iron.

Over centuries, acids from decaying plants pulled iron out of the soil and left it as ore along the riverbanks and swamps. The ironmasters dug it up and smelted it in furnaces fired by charcoal made from local pine, with crushed shells as flux, according to the NJ Pinelands Commission.

More than 30 forges and furnaces once worked the Pines. Whole villages grew up around them.

Here are four you can still visit.

🔗 A fall drive through the Pine Barrens to a ghost town called Ong’s Hat

Batsto

Charles Read built the Batsto furnace in 1766. During the Revolution, it turned out munitions, camp kettles and iron fittings for the Continental Army.

The British wanted it gone. In October 1778, they sailed up the Mullica to raid Batsto, which led to the massacre at Chestnut Neck, where more than 40 Americans were killed. The British turned back before they ever reached the furnace.

Today: Batsto Village in Wharton State Forest, with the mansion, workers’ cottages, a sawmill and miles of trails.

Atsion

Not everyone was in a hurry to arm the Revolution.

Atsion’s owners split over it. Partner Henry Drinker was a Quaker and a pacifist, while the others wanted the wartime business. Their compromise: shut down the furnace but keep the forge running, making iron for the Pennsylvania Navy, according to NJPineBarrens.com.

Philadelphia ironmaster Samuel Richards later built it up to more than 120 workers, with a church, a company store and the mansion that still stands, according to the state’s historical marker.

Today: Atsion Lake in Shamong, a favorite launch for paddling the Mullica.

Weymouth

This one’s close to home. Weymouth Furnace started in 1802 in Hamilton Township, where I grew up.

During the War of 1812, it supplied the federal government with “shot and bombs,” according to Atlantic County. It burned in 1862, and paper mills took over the site until 1897.

Today: Stone ruins in an Atlantic County park on Route 559, and a launch for canoes and tubes on the Great Egg Harbor River.

Martha

Ironmaster Isaac Potts built Martha Furnace in 1793 and named it for his wife. It cast shot along with stoves and kettles, and it burned in June 1813, in the middle of the war. It was back in blast by August.

Today: Not much more than a clearing in Wharton State Forest near Harrisville. That’s what makes it a true ghost town.

Why they vanished

In the 1840s, Pennsylvania furnaces fired by coal could make iron faster and cheaper. The last of the big Pine Barrens furnaces went out in the 1860s, and the towns emptied.

The woods took them back.

Still here

I’ve read Henry Charlton Beck’s “Forgotten Towns” books and John McPhee’s “The Pine Barrens.”

But my favorite Pine Barrens stories came from the family. We’ve had reunions in the Pines. I’ve four-wheeled the sand roads in a pickup and camped with my family on the Mullica River.

So did those pineys sell cannonballs to both sides? Maybe. Maybe it’s just a good story.

Either way, I know where I come from.

Piney through and through.

Fall in the Pine Barrens: Ong’s Hat, Batona Trail and lakes

Fall foliage in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, from White Dotte in Southampton to Pemberton Lake, Ong’s Hat, the Batona Trail and Lebanon Lake off Route 70.

Gallery Credit: Eric "EJ" Johnson

Batsto Village and pine barrens lake trail — photos from April 2026

A family hike along the Batsto Lake Trail in Wharton State Forest, Burlington County, New Jersey — April 2026. The flat four-mile loop behind historic Batsto Village winds along the Batsto River and Lake through the heart of the Pine Barrens. The trail is easy, well-marked with white blazes, and accessible to hikers of all ages. Along the way — pitch pines, cedar water, spring wildflowers including a purple pitcher plant, and at least one unbothered garter snake.

Gallery Credit: Photos by EJ