Batsto Village — Attraction in Washington Township

HAMMONTON: if you look at a map of NJ, you will notice a large section in South Jersey bathed in green. That is Wharton State Forest, a gorgeous section of the Pine Barrens full of history, rumored to be where the Jersey Devil roams, and is a great spot to spend time in nature hiking 50 miles of trails, boating from launches on various rivers, bird and wildlife viewing, camping spots, and learning about NJ’s past at the Batsto Village historic site.

The land was used by the Lenape in prehistoric times and the village dates back to 1766! Batsto Village was an iron and glassmaking community and many of the buildings still stand today including the mansion, grist mill, saw mill, post office, housing, and over 30 buildings in total. There are walking paths to each building and if the door is open, you are welcome to go inside and take a look. Check out the peaceful views of Batsto Lake and the visitor center that features a museum and gift shop.

We really enjoyed the Maple Sugaring Day event hosted by Wharton State Forest and Stockton University where they showed us how to turn sugar maple tree sap into syrup. There are sugar maple trees throughout the Batsto and Stockton properties that are tapped to collect sap in buckets and then boiled to make the delicious sweet maple syrup. We saw the tubing system used in a patch of trees to collect the sap and even had a sample; it tastes deliciously like lightly sweetened water. The syrup’s end product was so fresh and delicious too. You can buy a bottle of maple syrup in the gift shop.

Leashed dogs are allowed and we saw quite a few enjoying a walk amongst the picturesque and sprawling property. There is a small fee to enter the village from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day and free admission the rest...

This is a great place to visit. It’s a bit out of the way but worth the drive. Located in the beautiful Wharton State Forest in the Pine Barrens. From the historic buildings to the great hiking and biking trails you can spend a day without paying anything.

We went there to take a 4 mile hike on the Batsto Lake White Trail which is an easy and beautiful trail. The Batona Trail which is 26.5 miles long runs through the park. There are also shorter trails. There are also mountain biking trails from .8 miles to 19.3 miles.

There is a large parking lot and a second dirt parking lot just north on Hammonton Road which is where we parked. The main bathrooms were closed for renovation so there were porta potties in the parking lot which were clean and had hand sanitizer in them. There are also 4 EV chargers (2 stations of 2 chargers). Two cars were charging. Nice to be able to charge while visiting this park.

Benches and picnic tables are located in a couple of areas including one covered pavilion with picnic tables. There are no playgrounds. Dogs on leashes are allowed.

There is an environmental center, visitor center and general store which we didn’t visit. Walking through the historic buildings is one of the highlights of this park. A few buildings were set up as it would have been in 1766 when the village was founded and included signage telling the story of living and working at the iron works.

We will visit it again to hike other trails both inside and...

This is a quaint historic village in the Pine Barrens. It’s perfect for a daily walk, hike, for adults and kids, dog-friendly too.

I would recommend parking at the main parking by the visitor center and watching the video first, it’s only 10 minutes and gives you a good understanding of the history of how it came about. There is also a small very nice museum at the visitor center but I’d leave that for last when you’re feet are already tired from walking the village.

By many of the buildings you can find remnants of what it’s been: glass, ore, old nails and bricks. It was like a treasure hunt for the kids. The interesting part is they have a collection of things people have found with a little note of name and date. Fun for the kids.

It’s great to visit any time of year but I hear they get more activity and open shops during spring and summer.

There are also hiking trails and maps so you could make a full day of your visit.

Unfortunately the nature center was not open when we visited so can’t report on that but the little gift shop was very nice. They sell honey and maple syrup sourced from the village.

You can also buy tour tickets for the mansion, very...