Park Hopping Momma: Village of a Past Long Gone

Batsto Village

Hammonton, Nj

On Saturday, the boys and I made the hike (about 1 hour and fifteen minutes) to Wharton State Park; specifically Batsto Village. Batsto Village consists of 33 various historical villages and structures from when this was a bog iron and glassmaking industrial center back in 1766. The village remained in operation until 1867. It is also believed that this was a former stomping ground of the Lenni Lenape as well.

The 32 room mansion that has lodged numerous ironmasters over the years stood out impressively amongst the other clusters of various buildings. It honestly reminded me of those old 'fixer upper' houses in horror movies that overly eager, unsuspecting couples buy and move their families into only to discover there are ghosts or other supernatural beings lurking in the shadows. Certain rooms of the mansion are open for tours, however, with a toddler in tow, we chose to not take a tour.

Due to a lack of sleep on Max's part, we mostly wandered without direction through the vast grounds. It was also super windy so we didn't stop in one spot for too long. We walked across a lovely dirt bridge that offered amazing views of the bright blue water of the Batsto Lake and River. A rushing dam sent water to the Sawmill. The boys enjoyed throwing rocks into the cascading waters before running off towards the many cottages that housed workers.

It was really neat to see how intact the houses still were. Most of them looked frozen in time, waiting for their inhabitants to return. Considering it's early November and we've had a lot of rain recently, the clusters of leaves litter the ground. Max loved running through the leaves, sending them fluttering into the air. Sam picked up leaves as big as his face and even pretended to use them as a mask. We eventually made our way to back to the lake and explored the Sawmill. I tried to taking cute Fall pictures of the two of them but the boys were more interested in running up down the walkway of the Sawhill and jumping off a platform nearby.

There is so much to see at Batsto Village that by the time we made it back to where the mansion stood vigilant in the heart of the old ghost town, we still had many more buildings to explore but not a whole lot of time left. We briefly ran around the post office, where the boys knocked on the old doors, pretending to trick or treat, the ice house and a few other smaller buildings. From what I've read, we missed quite a few buildings and it would be nice to walk around more. It is a given that we are coming back here again to discover more!