![]() Andrew Rider, former president of Rider College and owner of Hampton Park during the cranberry era, was returning to the town with $4,000 in cash to pay his cranberry workers. This town has a fascinating history including a robbery that occurred in 1916. The waters of the raceway are full of iron and it is said that an old furnace wheel lies buried deep below. The ruins and foundations are mostly from the cranberry era, but you can still see the site of the furnace by the bridge on the Batsto River. It was later converted into a cranberry bog and packing facility that operated through the turn of the 19th century. The Hampton Furnace was built in 1795 and the town was initially an ironworks village. After about two miles we finally emerged to find the ruins of the old town. ![]() However, this road gets really muddy and I had to turn around for fear of getting stuck.Ībout a week later, we took an alternate route by making a right onto Glossy Spung Road off of Carranza Road. That same day, we attempted to follow her directions to the abandoned town by following Hampton Road off of Route 206, just before the Atsion Ranger Station. In March, we had the pleasure of attending the 9th Annual Lines on the Pines Convention in Hammmonton, NJ where we met none other than Barbara Solem-Stull, the author of Ghost Towns and Other Quirky Places in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Her book gives a detailed history of the Hampton furnace and includes a hand-drawn map with the location of all the ruins. After getting a face full of spiderwebs, we came across just one of the house foundations and a big cement cylinder so we knew we had to try again in better conditions. The first time we scoped it out, it was nighttime in late September and we were almost eaten alive by bugs. We made several attempts to get to Hampton before we actually found success.
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